Distractions
by Elsha
Summary: What do a Slytherin pureblood and a Muggleborn Hufflepuff have in common? Nothing except music, and even that doesn't go far. As Hogwarts descends into chaos, two uneasy acquaintances struggle to understand the opposite point of view on the coming war. P
1. Chances

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Distractions

A/N For anyone who does actually read these stories (being realistic here), this is the backstory of how Anne Fairleigh and Theodore Nott know each other; it got written because I wrote Unity, See You There, and Being Slytherin, and then got plot bunnies for the two. Far too many. It's a very character-driven piece, more about how the events of OoTP affected people on the sidelines than anything else. Please read and review if you have anything to say; it's all helpful. I'd also like to note that while the other stories here are collaborations, of a sort, this is by me (Elsha) alone. Just to clear up the sudden use of the first-person singular. ;) I'd like to take the chance to thank Chloe, who betaed this first chapter for me, Mira, who has had some very useful advice, and the two reviewers I've had for Unity - Slide and malexandria. It's always good to know that _someone_ out there has read my work. 

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Disclaimer: It all belongs to the lovely JKR, Warner Bros., and associated copyright holders. Any character you do not recognise as coming from the HP universe is mine, with the exception of Anne, who belongs all to herself. 

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Chapter One - Chances

Anne Fairleigh was glad she wasn't really interested in Quidditch. Everyone else in the school, it seemed at times, became so wound up in the game, glory and competition it just gave her a headache. Not to mention it encouraged fighting. At a time when the Sorting Hat was actually giving them advice, telling them to be united, everyone was at odds. It felt as though a good half of that was over Quidditch. Oh, sure, there were other issues that split the school - Umbridge, You Know Who's return - but Quidditch was ever-present. Anne herself felt almost removed from it all. She was Muggleborn, and had only found out about any of these issues that her schoolmates considered life and death when she'd started at Hogwarts nearly four years earlier. To a great extent she still felt like an observer into another world. Then again, that was the type of person she was: an observer. She clung to quite a few things from her previous life, before Hogwarts, before magic like her music. Today was the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Since her House was not playing, her friends felt no need to hustle her into the stands to watch and cheer, even if they themselves went. Anne, meanwhile, was off to one of the small rooms set aside on the fourth floor for the few students who did play music (and they were rare enough) to practise her flute in peace and quiet. At least, that was the plan. 

As Anne rounded a corner on the fourth floor, she ran straight into a much taller boy hurrying the other way. The flute case and folder she was clutching went flying, and Anne herself managed to skid for a few seconds before catching herself on a tapestry.

"Watch where you're going!" exclaimed an angry voice. She looked away from the wall to see a weedy Slytherin boy picking himself up from the floor. His dark hair flopped over his eyes, and he reached up to push it back. "You could hurt people, you little Hufflepuff idiot!"

"Oh, thanks, I'm quite alright", she said coolly. "Damn! My flute!" 

Her folder had landed next to the Slytherin, and seemed to be OK, but her flute case had fallen open (the catch needed fixing) and was lying half-way across the corridor. She took a few quick steps and fell to her knees to pick it up. Anne breathed a hasty sigh of relief to see that the pieces had not fallen out of their bedding, and appeared to be unharmed. Her parents had bought it for her last summer, and she was deathly scared of breaking it. 

"That's OK, then," she said, half to herself. 

"It's generally considered polite to inquire if _people_ are OK, too," commented a still rather contemptuous voice from behind her. She closed the case and rose to face him. He was holding out her folder. "This yours?" 

She took it. "Thanks. Look, sorry about that. I probably wasn't looking where I was going." Now the shock was wearing off, she felt herself retreating back into her shell. "I'll just, er, just be going now."

"Hold on a minute," said the boy, not unkindly. "What's your name?"

"Anne Fairleigh. I'm a fourth-year. I was just, er, going to practice my flute."

"Fairleigh? I don't recognise that name. Is your family from down South?" 

The boy was sizing her up now, obviously trying to decide if she looked like anyone.

"Oh, you wouldn't know my family. My parents are Muggles. What's-what's your name, anyway?"

Anne was taken aback by the sudden change in his expression. Wary curiosity was replaced with open scorn. "Oh. A _Muggleborn_. No _wonder_ you're not at the Quidditch match." 

He sneered, turned on his heel, and walked away. Anne stared after him, her cheeks reddening. He had no right he what had she done ?

Cheeks still flaming, she turned to head quickly down the corridor in the opposite direction, intent on finding that spare practice room and getting out her flute. Music was an excellent distraction from both boring Saturday afternoons and Slytherins who looked at her like she was dirt. 

About half an hour later she had finished running scales on her flute and was launching into the first part of a Handel sonata when she became aware of someone watching her from behind. She broke off and wheeled around to look at the door, which was open. The Slytherin boy was lounging in the doorframe, looking at her. 

"Oh, don't stop on my account." The Slytherin waved a hand. "Go on. It sounded very good."

She blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm not all that interested in watching the Quidditch, and you did mention you were off to play the flute, so I thought I'd come and see if you were any good. After all, Muggleborns may be bad at magic, but there's nothing to stop you playing well."

She tightened her fingers on her flute, feeling suddenly uncertain. "You what?" She rather wanted him to go away, but wasn't quite sure how to put it. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Theodore Nott. Fifth-year." He said it with the air of one conferring a favour.

"Right. Erm. What what do you have against Muggleborns, anyway?" The uncertainty, and the urge to send him away, were even stronger now. But she really had no idea how to do it. The way he was acting, she doubted he'd listen. 

"Because you're – Muggleborn. I mean, obviously, that's not your fault, or anything," he said, sounding condescending. "But you're not proper wizards. Not like us, anyway. Everyone knows that marrying Muggles - and Muggleborns - dilutes the magic. It should have been stopped centuries ago."

"You can't just you really believe all that? Who told you - why on earth do people believe those kind of things ?"

"My parents told me, of course. They're right. Actually I'm quite broadminded about it. There are a lot of people in my House who think you Muggleborns shouldn't be allowed to come here. Like Malfoy, you know him? I'm not so sure about that. My parents -" 

For the first time he stopped, sounding uncertain. "They're very vehement about it all, you know. They really dislike Muggles very much. I agreed with them, but, coming here, there are some of you who aren't so bad you're almost like us -" He cut off very abruptly. "Anyway, what are you doing? You were playing. Go on." 

Anne's patience was worn very thin by this point. He'd just come in here, insulted her, and expected her to keep playing like it was some sort of performance – 

"No" she said in a very small voice. 

"What?" He looked utterly taken aback. As if the question of her refusal - or even her opinion - had not crossed his mind. 

"I said no." She raised her head slightly, and met his eyes. "I-I'm playing for me, and I would prefer it if-if you left. Please. I don't want to be-you to stand here and talk to me like-go. Please go, now. Or I-I won't play anymore, if you do stay." He was staring, now, but he recovered enough to eye her with a disturbing amount of disdain. 

"Fine. Play for yourself, little Hufflepuff. Why should I care?" 

With that he was gone. It was several minutes before Anne felt sure enough to start playing again, and then she did not stop for half an hour or more. The music was soothing, distracting. The way he'd looked at her, what he'd said 

She felt like she wasn't quite human to him. That wasmore than unnerving. 

*

Theodore Nott walked away from the small practice room with a definite sense of unease. He knew he shouldn't have followed the girl, but he'd been bored, not interested in the Quidditch, and she'd been a musician. He liked music. Obviously, however, Muggleborns weren't worth talking to. He'd known that, but she'd almost looked like she might be worth conversing with. Then she'd had to go and speak back to him. The cheek of her! Did she know who she was talking to? He was a pureblood Slytherin, son of a Ministry official, and to be talked back to by a silly fourth-year in Hufflepuff then, what had he expected? She was a Muggleborn. They weren't like proper wizards. They weren't really wizards at all. For so many years his parents had told him that Muggleborns and Muggles were nothing, they were not human, and they should be thrown out of the wizarding world. He had gone along with that, without question - why should he question it? Now - It was true they weren't the same, buthe had become unsure of late at whether they weren't going a little overboard. Ever since the Dark Lord had returned, his parents had become increasingly fanatical about it, had spoken with a look that made him more than uneasy of the day when the Dark Lord would reveal himself and take rule of the wizarding world back into the hands of the purebloods, where it belonged, and the Mudbloods and Mugglelovers would be punished and destroyed

Theodore himself wasn't sure he _wanted_ the Dark Lord back. He knew his father was punished – and painfully - for his failures. He knew that it meant being on the same side as Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle - the people he spent time with - because it was the appropriate thing to do. Crabbe and Goyle were idiots, but Malfoy made him more than uneasy with his total disdain of anyone who didn't meet his standards of family, his cruelty, his refusal to ignore insults. Malfoy never understood that if someone was that far below you, that what they said couldn't possibly matter: it was irrelevant. Theodore had escaped so far by being a follower; but he felt the time might be coming when he would have to be an _active_ follower, and choose a side, the Dark Lord's side. His coming of age was only a year and a half away, now - too close. That's why he'd skipped the Quidditch match, and followed the Muggleborn. He'd wanted a distraction from those thoughts. Music was a distraction. Music, and the absence of his classmates, and someone who didn't know anything about what was going on, or would have dismissed it as Harry Potter's ravings. hen he'd had to go and talk and she'd had to ask questions and he'd almost said too much. So now he was going to go back to the Quidditch, and cheer Slytherin, and agree with Malfoy, and avoid thinking about _anything_ except his schoolwork and the OWLs and being in Umbridge's good graces. Thinking was dangerous. Especially for him. 

*

Over the next three weeks, as a chilly January slipped unnoticed into a rainy February, Anne was more than relieved to not see Theodore Nott at all. She buckled down to school and practising her flute, and fading into the background like she always did. It certainly worked. So well that her dorm-mate Gabby Hill turned to her at breakfast one day and said "Anne, what's with you at the moment? We barely know you're there!"

The other Hufflepuff girls agreed loudly. Anne shrugged, and stirred her porridge.   
"I've just been feeling quiet, that's all," she said. "I'm not really a noticeable person anyway."  
"Hmmm s'pose that's true," mused Gabby. She turned back to the others. "Hey guys, guess who asked me to go to Hogsmeade with them on Valentine's Day?" They dissolved into giggles and chatter. 

*

Unnoticed, Anne finished her breakfast and headed off to the Owlery to check in on her owl. Gwaihir was a small grey barn owl, the pet she'd chosen when she had received her Hogwarts letter. (The name was a slightly unfortunate by-product of her then-current reading material; she had fortunately been dissuaded from her first choice, Gandalf.) The letter had also contained a note telling Anne's startled parents who to ask for help with the wizarding world: their rather eccentric neighbours, Priam and Roberta Martin. Priam Martin, it turned out, was a wizard. His wife, a Muggle who had adapted splendidly to the world, had come with Anne and her mother on their first-ever trip to Diagon Alley, to buy her school supplies. It had been Roberta who'd advised an eleven-year-old Anne to get an owl, so she could write home to her family. It had been the Martins, too, who'd come to Kings Cross to show Anne how to get through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. She saw them quite a bit in the holidays. She had babysat their children, Elise, Hector and Andromache, over the summer holidays - they were fairly typical kids, talkative and apt to play up for a stranger, but on the whole well-behaved. Elise was now a first-year in Hufflepuff. Anne liked the Martins; they provided a connection between the two worlds she uneasily inhabited, and they were always there to talk to about the things her parents didn't quite get (like basilisks, escaped convicts, and Triwizard Tournaments). Plus, she was looking forward to a fairly steady source of income over the holidays, if she continued to babysit for them. 

Anne didn't spend too long in the Owlery, though; she had Potions first, and absolutely no desire to be late. It wasn't one of her favourite classes, but she managed to avoid Snape's ire for the most part. If she had favourite classes, they would have to be Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts – well, not this year, but last year had been fun. She enjoyed the practical aspect more than anything, and Professor Umbridge was disappointing if not downright creepy. Anne disliked her a lot, but Umbridge, most thankfully, didn't know Anne existed. Most teachers didn't. She did the work, achieved reasonable marks, and was only remarkable for her flute playing. Since she had received permission to use the practice rooms in first year, she doubted anyone but Professor Sprout even remembered she played. Unfortunately, Herbology was the one subject hard work had never helped her in: whatever the opposite of a green thumb was, she had it. 

*

That Valentine's Day the entire school above third year vanished to Hogsmeade. Anne vanished to a practice room. She would have a whole morning and maybe afternoon to play, and no-one to disturb her. The one thing about Hogwarts she disliked was the lack of music groups; while she knew other students played instruments, there was no orchestra or chamber group to join. She had played in a group a little when she'd started the flute, before Hogwarts, and loved it. Sharing music was the point, she felt. A pity all the girls in her year (the only people she knew well) were decidedly unmusical. 

Slipping into an empty room (she had her pick today) she cast a silencing spell around the door, to stop sound leaking out, before looking around. The practice rooms were small, and windowless, but they had seats, a small table, and in this one's case what looked like a very ancient piano. She unpacked her flute, set up the stand, tuned to the piano (it seemed to be in tune, thankfully) and started on a few scales. C Major, A Minor, E-flat Major The door opened. 

"There you are," said Nott's voice. "I figured you must be here. I had to look through all the rooms. Did you ward this one for sound?"

She turned to glare. "It's _you_ again."

He ignored this, looking around the room with disdain. "Not cleaned very much, are they?"

"Was there – I mean, why – look, what are you doing here?" She hadn't seen him since the incident three weeks ago, and had no particular desire to. 

He looked at her. "Yes, I thought – I want you to try playing something." 

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The unutterable gall! But instead of yelling at him, like a small part of her desperately wanted to, she just said "Oh erm what is it?" She felt herself going red under his gaze, before he eventually held out three pages of music. 

"This. It's a flute sonata. Try it. Could I come back in an hour or so?"

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and glared. It didn't do anything appreciable, but she forged ahead anyway. "Look. Why do you think I'll play this for you? Why do you think I want to talk to you at all? Have you ever heard words like _please_ and _thank you_? And why aren't you down in Hogsmeade like everyone else? It's Valentine's Day, don't you have a girlfriend to go and see? Or are you too much of an arrogant "

Nott's expression darkened, but he didn't reply directly, instead stepping fully into the room. "Well. It seems you can talk, after all. You did seem very quiet before." 

Fuming, she snatched the music off him, and scanned it. It didn't look awfully hard. A voice in her mind whispered_ go on, you can do this, it'll only take half an hour or so to run through '_ She looked up at him. "Get out. And you can come back in half an hour. Or not at all. I honestly don't care. Oh, and you'd better have something to contribute because I am not playing this for you. OK?"

He continued to stare at her with that look of - well, barely controlled irritation, for one thing, and for anotherthe way that made her feel like he wasn't seeing her. Just something lesser.   
She felt herself reddening again. 

"Erm. Go. Please? I mean, that is, just – look, go." 

He nodded, as if her outburst had never happened, and replied, "I'll be back, then." With that he left, shutting the door behind him. 

__

I wish_ he would stop making those exits_, thought Anne miserably. If only the boy would talk to her like she was on his level, it would help. _Instead of looking at me like I'm a house elf, or something of the sort. But this _is _nice musicwhere'd he get it?_

Putting it on the stand, and smoothing the crease she'd made when she snatched it, she began to play. 

Exactly thirty-two minutes later, by her watch, there was a brisk knock on the door. She opened it, and Theodore Nott stood there, some music in his hand. 

"May I come in?", he asked, with a modicum of politeness. Startled, she mumbled something, and stepped back to let him enter. He closed the door behind him. 

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at the music, by way of conversation.

"My contribution", he said blandly, walking over and pulling out the piano stool. "Also known as the piano part. I thoughtdo you want to try playing it?" He set out the music, then turned to look at her. 

Anne blinked. "You could have explained this before", she said, slightly asperically. The idea seemed to be new to him. "I I suppose I could have", he allowed, looking puzzled. "I just didn't think "

"No, you never think, do you? Do you even think I'm a person?" 

Anne said it in passing, picking up her flute, but she was startled herself to find she'd spoken aloud. She often thought things like that, but saying them was not something she did often.   
"No. Oh, shit." Nott went red. "That's not what I meant. I mean – no – that is – you're Muggleborn, and I always " He struggled for a moment, before continuing. "I was brought up to think your sort was not like us. I still well anyway, I was rude. I apologise." He looked like he was swallowing something unpleasant. 

"You're only saying that so I'll play the music." 

"Yes, I am, aren't I?" He frowned. "Look. Sorry. Just keep reminding me if II don't mean to insult you, really. You're just not like me." 

Possibly worse that the implied insult was the fact he meant it. He truly, really, thought that she wasn't, and that it was _acceptable_ to think like that.   
Anne shook her head. However easier it would be to send him out again, her sense of fairness - he was trying, after all - and, yes, her curiosity, would not allow it. "Oh...forget it. Have you practised this before?"

Nott seated himself on the stool. "I know it well enough, if you're ready, I have the intro, so I'll give you two bars -"

"One's fine, just make sure it's crotchet beat -"

"Ready, then? One, two, three, four -"

He was quite a good piano player: not brilliant, but competent, and Anne could see he loved the music. It had been so long since she'd played with someone else, except at home, that it felt unnatural at first, but then she slipped into the rhythm and the music. It wasn't a particularly long piece, so when they reached the end - still together - she felt rather disappointed. 

"What do you think?" she asked Nott. He tapped his music with a pencil he'd found somewhere, voice enthusiastic. 

"OK, but we did get about a bar out here, I think that was my fault, so if we could try taking it from bar fifteen to get that straight -"

Anne nodded absently. "Cool, and I'd like to go over that first repeat, the fingering's nasty and I missed some of the high notes."

"From fifteen, then? Three, four -"

An hour, nearly two, later Anne looked at her watch. "Oops, I think we've missed lunch "

"We what?" Nott looked at his own. "Damn, we have too." He had loosened up a little, in the playing of the music – enough to speak to her as a person, forgetting his prejudices, because this was music and they were both players. 

"We might make the last of itprobably not. I think we should stop, though. I've got homework." He scowled. "Potions." 

"Hmm, so do I, big Transfiguration essay listen, do you want to practice this again sometime? I know I have some other music with piano parts knocking around somewhere. Where'd you get this, anyway?"

"Library, there's quite a nice section up the back. No idea why, Hogwarts is terrible for music." Nott was packing up the music as he spoke. "Is Saturday afternoon okay? Unless you've got something else on -"

"No, no, I'm fine. Two-ish? In here? I don't think the other rooms have a piano."

"Oh, they don't, I always practice in here."

"Really?" Anne looked at him curiously. "I'm surprised we haven't bumped into each other before."

"We might have, but I wouldn't stop to talk to a Muggleborn Hufflepuff usually." 

Anne was taken aback by the return of this topic. "You did." 

"I was thinking."

"Why does me being Muggleborn matter so much to you?" She picked up her flute and slowly began to take it apart. "I know you're Slytherin, but "

"Slytherin, Slytherin, evil nasty Slytherin." He said it mockingly. "But of course it matters, it's how things are. It's not just me, though. It'sa family issue." For a moment he looked bleak, and much older than fifteen. "I would appreciate it if you didn't mention I "

"No-one listens to me to know", Anne said simply, and it was true. She was the listener, not the one who talked. It was always assumed she had nothing to talk about. 

"Good." Nott nodded. He walked over to the door, put his hand on the knob, and then looked back at her. "See you on Saturday, then, er, Anne." It was an attempt to talk to her as an equal, and they both knew it. 

"Erm, see you then, er, Theodore." Anne smiled nervously at him as he left. Why on earth was she doing this? Arranging to play music with a Slytherin fifth-year who thought she wasnot his sort? It wasn't as if he'd even been very likeable. Although he did play quite well. She had missed playing with someone - hadn't she been thinking it would be nice to find someone to play with? She'd definitely be silly to give up the music just because _he_ had issues. After all, they had managed to get along well enough when they stuck to music, hadn't they? 

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Yes, why not? 


	2. Choices

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A/N The reason I got this chapter up so fast is that I have actually finished the story, and am posting as I edit it. The first two chapters were the most edited, so others will take a bit longer. In case anyone was wondering, the story is six chapters long. 

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Chapter Two – Choices

After that, Anne did start to see Theodore around the school a bit more – relatively speaking. She would notice him studying in the library, or walking between classes, or in the Great Hall at mealtimes, sitting with Malfoy and his cronies. As far as everyone else was concerned, of course, neither had any idea the other existed. Anne certainly didn't commit the gaffe of trying to speak to him in between Saturdays - she was pretty sure he would ignore her. That suited her. She highly doubted they would have much to talk about, outside of music. Besides, the Saturday meetings were going well enough. They would play some music, and talk about it, and things around it – composers, instruments, the differences between Muggle and wizard music. Any other topics tended to lead to thoughtless arrog from Theodore, or frustration from Anne, and so were scrupulously avoided. Music was neutral enough that they could even agree on things. Anne could not comprehend Nott's attitude towards her, as if she was incapable of doing or understanding anything except music (where he could not deny her talent.) She in her turn felt he was unable to get over himself. It was almost a pity; he showed, at times, flashes of decency under the thoughtless arrogance. Very small ones. It went on like this for a few weeks until one Friday evening in early March, when she was in the library looking for a Charms text. 

"Looking for something?" said a voice from behind her quietly. She jumped. 

"What-oh, Theodore." She looked at him quizzically. "Why- what are you doing here?"

"Looking for a book, that's all." He reached over her shoulder to pluck a mouldering paperback from the shelf. "Here we go." 

"I thought we didn't know we knew each other, except when we're playing music."

"We don't." He was walking away from her, now. "After all, I don't talk to Muggleborns, do I?"

He flashed a smile back over his shoulder, clearly in an amicable mood for once. Anne sighed. Theodore Nott as an arrogant prat she could deal with. She had learned to deal with it, over the past three sessions of playing music with him, by ignoring it. It was not precisely easy - but it was helping her grow a tougher hide than three previous years at Hogwarts put together. Nott being ironic could take more getting used to. Rather a lot more. 

Finally spotting the book she wanted, she pulled it off the shelf, and hurried back to the table she'd been at, only to see Nott seated there, apparently using his text to write an essay. 

__

Oh, damn she thought. Now she'd have to go find another table, and the library was fairly crowded this evening, especially with the approach of the OWLs and NEWTs. Over at the next nearest table she could see three fourth-years she knew vaguely from joint classes; Ginny Weasley, no mistaking the red hair, the oddball girl Luna from Ravenclaw, and another Gryffindor she thought might be called Colin. She couldn't join them, though; it justno, they probably wouldn't want her. Well, she had to collect her stuff, at least, so she marched over and reached for her things. Just before she picked them up, however, she hesitated. Nott seemed to still be unaware she was there. 

__

If he's going to break the rules - unspoken though they are - then two can play at that game

Anne pulled out the chair across from Nott and dropped firmly into it. Putting the book on the table, _Charms of Movement_, she opened it to the chapter on the Summoning Charm and began to head up her essay. 

__

Summoning and Banishing Charms are used often in daily wizarding life. She paused for a moment to tap her finger thoughtfully. _The Summoning Charm is produced_

After a few moments, a voice interrupted her. 

"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?" Nott's voice was angry – and slightly worried. She felt herself beginning to redden, but she didn't look up. 

"Writing an essay," she said, with a semblance of casualness. "Summoning and Banishing Charms." 

"You can't sit here!" 

Anne didn't trust herself to reply, but merely continued to write. Suddenly her essay was whisked out from under her quill. Her head went up. 

"Hey!"

"Listen, you can't come and sit here!" Nott was speaking in a low but urgent tone. "I can't be seen talking to you! I don't know you! Do you know what sort of trouble I'd get in if I spoke more than two civil words to a Muggleborn? I. Am. A. Slytherin! There's a war going to start soon, and I can't be seen to be on the wrong side! Malfoy snarling will be the least of my problems if that happens!" His fierce yet muffled tone was almost comical. He suddenly looked horrified, before leaning back into his seat with a groan. "Why do I end up saying too much to you?" 

Anne gripped the table edge unconsciously. "II was here first. So if you want to, to not be seen with me, or, or anything, you can go." She stared back defiantly. "So there."  
Nott closed his eyes tightly for a few moments. "Why me?" he muttered. "Why do I have to keep _thinking?_" 

Since this comment made absolutely no sense, Anne merely reached across, pulled her essay back, and began to write again. Nott looked as if he was going to stand up and go, but with a sigh, he too picked up his quill and kept writing. He did shuffle around so that anyone would think they were being forced to share a table due to lack of space. As, Anne thought, they were.   
After about five minutes he said, still barely audible "By the way. You know receive? In your second paragraph? You spelt it wrong. The e goes before the i." 

"Oh. Right." Anne corrected it. "I always get that wrong." 

"I wouldn't worry. I was eight before I could spell my own name right." 

"Nott? That's not hard." 

"Try Theodore. I used to spell it with an i instead of the first o. Because that's how it's pronounced." 

"Fairleigh's pretty nasty too, that way."

"What does Fairleigh mean, anyway?" The fact that they were conducting the conversation without looking up - and from opposite ends of the table - made Anne strain a bit to catch what he was saying. She frowned, scratching out a wrongly-chosen word. 

"To be honest? I haven't the faintest. It's English, is all I know."

"Nott's Saxon, I think. I'm not sure."

"Saxon? Not very fair -Saxon, are you?"

"So?" Anne glanced up to see him raise an eyebrow at her. "Better dark than at the end of blonde jokes."

"Well, thank you very much, _Nott_." She distinctly heard him snicker. "What are you doing, anyway?"

"Charms essay, Care of Magical creatures researchnot that we get too much of that."

"Well, it's more of a practical subject, isn't it. Nice change from things like History of Magic."

"Oh, do you take Care of Magical Creatures?" 

"Yes. We haven't been having much fun in lessons lately, though, what with Umbridge breathing down our necks." 

"It's not quite so bad for us – she likes all the Slytherins, but I can see why Hagrid gets so upset. I mean, he's a useless teacher, but he's trying as much as he is able."

"Useless?" Anne was indignant. "He is not useless!"

"Not his fault, I suppose. Being half-giant and all. But you have to admit he isn't the greatest teacher," Nott said matter-of-factly. Anne contented herself with glowering at the innofensive parchment. They continued to write in silence. 

__

Well, there I was thinking about how arrogance was so much easier to deal with

*

She didn't get back to the Common Room until quite late, just before the eight-thirty curfew. It was still quite crowded with people doing homework or, in some rather rare cases, just hanging out. Anne spotted Mai and Gabby sitting at a table over in the corner. They appeared to be doing more talking than actual work. She crossed the room to slide into a chair beside them. Gabby appeared to be describing the merits of a fellow fourth-year. 

"C'mon, Mai, how can you not think he's - hey, Anne, where have you been? You went off to the library ages ago!"

"Just writing my essay. It was a bit quieter." Anne shrugged. "Where're Sarah and Ellie?"

"Ellie's having a shower, Sarah went up to bedshe was feeling tired, or something. I think she's having problems with Jeremy," Gabby confided. Jeremy was Sarah's boyfriend, a fellow Hufflepuff. "Has she said anything to you?"

"Honestly, Gabby, do we have to discuss Sarah's boyfriend issues?" Mai sounded slightly irritated. "There are more important things in life." 

"But this _is_ important" protested Gabby. "We can't help Sarah if we don't know what's going on!"

Anne and Mai exchanged glances. 

"What aboutthose, what was it, Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban? That's more important," offered Anne. 

"I suppose." Gabby sounded dubious. "Not like they're very likely to turn up at Hogwarts, though. It's not like Sirius Black, or anything. They knew he was after Harry Potter."

"Why did they do all those things, anyway?" Anne asked on a whim. "They sounded awful, but why? Why kill all those people?"

Mai frowned. "They're all believers in pure blood. And they were all in Slytherin, probably. They think that all Muggleborns should be killed. Or not allowed to go to Hogwarts, or whatever. They're not too keen on anyone who has Muggle or Muggleborn ancestors, either. Loony, the lot of them."

"But why?"

Gabby wrinkled her nose. "Like Mai said. Loony. They all reckon Muggleborns aren't magic enough, or something." She rolled her eyes. "Honestly. They can't actually _know_ any Muggleborns, if they think that. Definitely not anyone like Hermione Granger, in Gryffindor. They probably believe that You Know Who is really back, too."

"How do we know he's not?" Anne persisted. 

"There's no real evidence" Mai countered. "Only Harry Potter's word, and he's just one person."

"Well, _maybe_ he is," Gabby allowed "but it's not like he can do anything too awful. With ten people? I mean, I know Mum and Dad said it was really bad back in the war – they had friends killed and stuff – but it was ages ago, it's not gonna happen again."

"The stories about them sounded pretty bad. Look how many people they murdered, or tortured, oreverything. If you read in our textbooks about the war, sounded like a good attempt at the Holocaust, but You Know Who didn't have enough people, or enough power, and then he got defeated." Anne wasn't quite sure why she was continuing this line of conversation, but it had reminded her of something. 

The other two were beginning to look uneasy. "Holo-what?" asked Mai. "What was that?"

"Never mind," Anne said absently, pushing her chair back to stand. "I think I'm going to bed, too. Night."

"Night, then, Anne."

As she made her way up the stairs, Anne was lost in thought. Death Eaterswho believed in pure bloodthat sounded awfully close to what Theodore said, half the time. That was why it had sounded familiar. Maybedid he really think that? It was pretty extreme - but it was the same thing. It was the reason those Death Eaters had done those things. It was what he believed. She couldn't believe Theo was - he was snide, and up himself, and talked down more often than she really liked - but he wasn't _evil_. He was even quite reasonable company, most of the time, if they kept the topic to music. It didn't make sense.   
_And what was with Mai saying the Death Eaters were probably Slytherins? The Slytherins are pretty nasty, most of them, definitely prejudiced, but you can'tthat's a big step to say if someone was evil they were Slytherin. But I remember Theo saying something like that toothat talking to Muggleborns mattered, _because_ he was Slytherin. _  
_I'll ask him_, Anne decided. _I'll ask him and he can tell me he knows they're crazy fanatics and we can get back to playing music and not worrying about that sort of thing. He's nothing like they are. He justjust has some similar ideas, that's all.   
I really must be getting tired. _

*

Theodore got to the practice room first on Saturday. He had spread out his music and was running through the first movement of the piece when Anne entered in a whirl of robes and a cold draught. He broke off and turned to face her. Her cheeks were flushed, her short fair hair was coming out of its clips, and she looked rather upset. 

"You're late," he observed. "Run into someone?"

Anne thumped her flute and music down on the table. "Just thatjust Umbridge, wanting to know where I was going with a flute, and why, and why I wasn't doing homework, and how music is adistraction from the important things, like schoolwork, and was I in a group, and did I remember that groups had to have permission-" She broke off with a sigh. "But you don't want to hear all that. I'll just get my flute out, it'll only take a minute." 

Theodore watched as she opened the black case and began to assemble her instrument. 

"Music _is_ a distraction, you know," he said eventually. "But maybe distractions are a good thing sometimes. I know that's why Ioh, never mind. Shall we start with the sarabande?" 

"Alright." Anne shuffled through her music before finding the right piece. "But can I ask you some questions, afterwards?"

"Questions?" He eyed her warily. "What about?"

"Oh, things." She was deliberately looking at the stand, and not him, he could tell. "Slytherin, and Muggleborns, and why distractions are a good idea. If you don't want to talk, that's okay, butI've just been wondering." 

A voice in his head was talking urgently at him now, ringing alarm bells.  
_Don't tell her what you really think, even if she's Muggleborn she's only that she won't understand and you're safe if no-one notices you, that's why you come here at all, because you don't have to _think _about blood and family and choices and the future and now you're going to have to explain_  
Anne finally looked at him, face composed again. 

"You want to start, then?" 

He licked his lips nervously. 

"Iyou can ask your questions later. But yes, if you want to count in, you've got the upbeat-"  
Anne merely nodded, and lifted the flute to her lips. 

"One, two-"

About half an hour later they paused for a short break, to make corrections where they were forgetting things, and stretch tired fingers. Anne was perched on the edge of the table, which was a perfect height for sitting on, if you didn't have more than a couple of inches over five feet. Theodore was scribbling something on his music. He could feel her eyes on him, watching without malice, but still enough to make him want to turn around. He resisted the idea, and wrote in firm block letters "QUIET" over bar twenty-two. 

"So what is the difference between Muggleborns andpeople who aren't?" asked Anne from behind. Theodore stiffened, pencil halting. He didn't want to think about this, but he had said she could askhe _knew_ this was a bad idea, why did he even talk to her

Eyes fixed on the page, he said "Well, Muggleborns aretheir parents are Muggles. They don't understand our world, they're not as good at magic, theycontaminate our bloodlines. A lot of people call them - anyway. People who aren't Muggleborns, my sort, we're purebloods. There are halfbloods, too, people who have Muggle ancestors or Muggleborn parents, but they're not quite as bad as Muggleborns, at least they understand our world. But how some people can actually marry Muggles" he shuddered. "It's just so _wrong_. They aren't like us." 

"But I'm Muggleborn, and I'm notall those things you said. Bad at magic. Acontamination."

Anne didn't sound angry; he wished she did. Obviously she would be angry, people couldn't be expected to understand their true place. It would be so much easier if they did understand, no need for the Dark Lord and all that went with him and choices he didn't - but Anne wasn't angry. She just sounded puzzled, and a little sad. Somehow, it was worse.   
_I don't _care _what she thinks_, he reminded himself furiously. 

"Of course you are," he said in clipped tones. "You can't be expected to understand." 

"II see." There was a slight rustle; she had slipped off the table, and he was sure she was now standing a couple of feet behind him. 

"Does everyone in Slytherin think the same way you do?" she asked, still in that puzzled tone. 

"They should." He wasn't going to look, he wasn't, the music was obviously more interesting "You heard the Sorting Hat, this year. We're the House of the purebloods. Oh, there're a few halfbreeds or Mudbloods, but everyone knows they don't really belong-"

"_What_ did you call us?"

Theodore froze. He had been repeating his father's words, Malfoy's words, what he'd been told so often whether he believed it or not didn't matter, but he'd just called Anneand come to think of it, he was repeating others; he, personally, didn't mind the halfbloods in Slytherin. Some had quite a lot of House spirit.

"Theo! Theodore Nott! Look at me!" Her tone was angry now, and that was better, he could deal with anger. It was an expected reaction from someone who didn't know enough to understand, of course she didn't. Even if she was actually a pretty smart girl-

"Look at me," she repeated. He did turn, then, slowly, and eyeballed her with direct scorn. 

"Yes?"

She made a nervous movement, seemingly taken aback by the coldness of his tone - she was too quiet, too weak, half the time - but _he_ wasn't going to show weakness by relenting. Anne surprised him by squaring her shoulders and looking straight at him. 

"Theo. Look. I just- I don't understand. How can you say stuff like that? I mean, it sounds like you don't think I'm a person, and I know you do, you come here every week and talk to me like I am one! You don't believe all that, you can't, because it's all so - nasty, and you're not a nasty person. Well, not very, most of the time," she admitted. Even with the tension of the moment, he couldn't help smiling a little at that. She did, too, but she went on. 

"And then you called me a - you did, because I'm Muggleborn, so don't bother denying it!" when he began to shake his head. "I know what it means, I've heard Malfoy and his lot calling people thosethose things, but I never understood why. Do you really believe all of that - truly?" 

Theo frowned. It needed a week's answer, or none, when he wasn't sure himself anymore-  
Unconsciously curling one hand into a fist, he said slowly "If I said yes, I didwould you say you never wanted to speak to me again, or something stupid like that?"

__

I wouldn't care, if she did. Really. What's there to miss? Just music, the distraction, and the distraction stopped when she started to ask questions

Anne blinked. "I honestly don't know," she said. "I mean, I don't think I could ever like someone who thought all that, but I do like you - I mean, playing music together, and everything," she corrected "so I don't know."

"You don't know." Theo laughed bitterly. "Well, neither do I. I mean yes, I believe it, but I can't really believe it about you anymore, you can't do that, well, I can't, because I'd have to split my brain in two. Trying to see you as both things, that is. Because you're – I don't know about magic, but you're not ayou're not a bad thing. For the school. I believe all that becauseit's true. Isn't it? But- like Malfoy does, no, because I think you're notas _magical_ as I am, maybe, but that doesn't mean you should be insulted about it, orthings. No need to draw attention to it. That's just how the world is, and besides" he brightened slightly "it should be our duty as purebloods to be nice to-"

"The lesser races?" Anne's tone was short, and her mouth had tightened. "Oh, I do see. Should we all wear yellow stars, too?"

"Yellow-what does that have to do with anything?" Theo stared at her in genuine lack of understanding. She sighed, shaking her head. 

"Lots. AMuggle history thing. It's kind of like what – oh, it's not important. I just-" She flopped suddenly into a chair that had been carelessly pushed back into the table. "I really don't get it, Theo."

__

Why does she call me that? When did I say she could call me that? I suppose it doesn't matter right now -

She pushed stray strands of hair behind her ear with a nervous gesture. 

"I've beenasking about some things. He Who Must Not Be Named. The war - the last war, I guess. What was done then. With those people escaping from Azkaban, I wanted to know what they'd done. They were in there for - war crimes, we'd call them. So many people died, or were tortured, at their hands, often, or" She dropped her hand, and looked at him helplessly.   
"You're notbut that's where your sort of attitude ends, Theo. You're where it starts, the Death Eaters are where it finishes. I can't believeI've known you for what, a month, maybe I'm not in a position to judge, but I can't believe you would follow that. Or maybe I don't want to believe it, maybe you would-how can I know that?"

She turned her head away, biting her lip. Theo shifted uncomfortably. 

"I shouldn't have asked, I shouldn't have wanted to know. We - let's just get on with the music, okay? Music we can agree on." Her smile was pained. Abruptly she stood, picking up her flute. "Shall we go from the beginning, then, and see if the dynamics work better this way?"]

"Anne-" Theo felt utterly adrift. He didn't want to have to think about this, didn't want to know, but she had outlined the issue so clearlywhere did it all end?

"Anne, I don't know, but-I swear, I don't - I wouldn't - Death Eaters murder and torture and I couldn't do that to anyone, not even - not you, I promise, do you believe I'd do that?"

She tilted her head, considering. 

"No. Not to me, I hope, I don't know, I don't know you quite well enough, but I think not. But you might one day, if you keep believing that. Maybe. And this is all so silly," her smile was slightly desperate "we're fifteen, and we're worrying about things that will probably never come, even if Harry Potter's telling the truth, even if You Know Who was that bad, just him and ten of his followerswhat can happen-"

Theo felt a rush of unease, it was coming, and it would be far worse than that, a war, a slaughter, didn't she know, couldn't she understand, but to bring that up now-

"Yes." He smiled, but it was as brittle as hers. "Worrying about nothing, aren't we? You want to count in?"


	3. Families

****

Chapter Three — Families

A/N:I refuse to kid myself that anyone actually reads this story, but if they do, sorry for the long delay in updating. More very shortly.   
(I could also really use someone to pre-beta the story for me before I submit it to a betaed site. On the offchance anyone is interested, drop me a line at elshamira@hotmail.com . I'm willing to do the same in return.) 

Anne saw Theo twice more before the bombshell dropped. Once was on a sunny Saturday afternoon, when the weather seemed to permeate the castle and they spent two hours chatting more than playing music. Anne had expressed a lack of understanding when Theo used a Quidditch-related expression, so he took it upon himself to explain the game better, sketching diagrams in the air with his wand. He'd been nearly unbearably high-and-mighty through a lot of it - believing Muggleborns couldn't understand the game - but he had tried.

"It's really quite simple, there's only four positions -"

"And three balls? I have a hard enough time with rugby, and that only uses one!"

"Yes, well, _Muggle_ sports. They're probably not that difficult." 

"So if I asked you the difference between a blindside and an openside flanker and who gets to the breakdown fastest, that's simple, right?"

"That's even in English?"

"Believe me, Theo, we invented the sport here." 

"Muggles may have. _We_ invented Quidditch, and you don't seem to be getting that." 

By the end of it she was nearly as confused as she'd been in the first place - though she had understood more than he'd given her credit for - and giggling at his bemused expression as to why _she_ wasn't more enthusiastic about the game. He'd called her "little Hufflepuff" and thrown his hands in the air in exasperation, muttering about why he shouldn't have bothered; it had only made her laugh harder. Being a quite reserved person, Theo hadn't, but he had been grinning in a way Anne felt she was unlikely to see very often. He had stopped to complain about her shortening of his name, but had been unable to put a finger on why it disturbed him. She'd said that if he was going to call her little Hufflepuff, Theo was quite okay. He had let it go at that point. In truth, she wasn't entirely sure why she had started calling him that, other than Theodore being far too long for everyday use, and "Nott" sounding a bitodd, to her ears, even after four years of boarding school. 

They had both known the talk was an attempt to not think about last Saturday's meeting, and the laughter had been a cover for unspoken thoughts. Theo was desperately trying not to think, Anne decided, to immerse himself in music and conversation and avoid — as far as he could — the topics of last week's discussion. Death Eaters and prejudice and Muggleborns. She didn't quite know why it disturbed him so much. Of course, she was Muggleborn, but he seemed to be managing to forget that at times. Why was the topic so touchy? 

The second time she'd seen him had been on the grounds that Sunday, on a cold evening when she'd been hurrying back from a walk her friends had suggested to clear the air. What it really meant was that her dormmates - Ellie, Sarah, Mai, and Gabby - were gossiping over Sarah's break-up with her boyfriend, and wanted to do it where they were sure the ex-boyfriend (who Anne thought was actually quite okay) couldn't hear them. Let alone the other Hufflepuff boys of their year. They barely noticed Anne falling behind. She had felt a sudden annoyance at their gossip — it wasn't _that_ interesting, after all — and decided to strike off on her own. It had paid off, though, when she'd run into Theo, crossing the grounds on his way to nowhere. 

"Where are you going?" she'd asked quietly. No-one else was in view, so he shouldn't mind

"Nowhere." He shrugged moodily. "Just for a walk. You with those chattering magpies?" 

Anne's lips twitched at the description. "In a sense. You look tired."

Theo snorted. "I am. I've been thinking too much."

"Or trying not to think?"

Don't. Not now. I just don't want to have toyes, think, dammit. So please, try and contain yourself, little Hufflepuff." 

Anne fell into step with him. It was chilly, but the skies were clear; everyone else was indoors_like we would be if we were smart._ She pulled a hand out of her cloak to rewrap her striped scarf more firmly. 

"I'll try."

"Well, you are a Hufflepuff, aren't you? Loyal and patient and hard-working. It shouldn't be hard." His tone was sardonic. 

"What's wrong?" _Trying to help Theodore Nott. The cold must be getting to my brain. _

He stopped suddenly, and looked down at her. "Why would I tell you?"

"Because I _am_ a loyal and patient Hufflepuff. I have absolutely no reason to repeat anything you say, and no-one to repeat it to. I'm the observer, not a gossiper like the others."

"Yes. Except I won't, because it concerns you too closely. I've been wondering, and thinking, and now I- I don't want to think about it any more. To worry. You're too many worries, you know that? Because knowing you means I have to decide whether my family is right. I see you; but I know they'd see"

"A Mudblood". Anne could use the word herself without too many qualms — after all, she'd only heard it the first time last year, and it still seemed silly rather than insulting. "I couldn't care less about what your family thinks. It isn't likely they'll ever be aware I exist, you know? Who'd tell them? Why would they care?"

"While you're entirely right about most of that" admitted Theo with unexpected candour "_I _care what they'd think, 'cause it isn't about you in particular, it's about the fact they would, and why they would, and why I don't, and how it was so much easier when I did agree with them blindly, and-" he stopped midflow, smiling wryly. "You make me talk far too much, you know that? Stop listening so attentively, or something." 

"Could be difficult, I've never been a talking person. I spend my life listening." 

"Do you have to listen to me?"

"You could try shutting up."

"Oy! I'm offended, Fairleigh."

Anne laughed. "Too bad, Nott. You're an evil Slytherin, remember? You can stand being offended, I reckon."

She was surprised - or maybe she shouldn't have been - how quickly his face closed over. 

"Evil Slytherins shouldn't be talking to innocent Hufflepuffs, then. Someone might see us, and I don't need that, now of all times." 

He whipped around and headed back for the castle. Anne watched him go without a word, black regulation cloak held close behind him, tall enough to be visible for a long way. She stood there, frowning, then shrugged and headed for the lake path. There was enough time to go around once before dinner, and she'd been looking for solitude. Theo was, after all, not the most restful of company at times, especially when his own private demons were nipping at his heels.   
Most times. 

The bomb dropped as Anne was eating breakfast the next morning. First, there was a commotion over at the Gryffindor table, where one person seemed to be getting an extraordinary amount of mail. Given that Anne had an excellent view of the table, and the person in question appeared to be Harry Potter, this was not precisely an unusual event. What _was_ unusual was Ellie's squeal as she ripped open her copy of the _Quibbler_, a silly, out-there, and entirely up her alley magazine Anne had been forced to peruse from time to time. It had made her reflect that wizards did appear to be just as gullible as Muggles, if on slightly more grounds for the weird and wonderful being out there. Well, Ellie's squeal was not unusual _per se_, but the cause was. 

"Oh my God! Guys! Look at this! Harry Potter's done an interview with the Quibbler! About You-Know-Who!" 

This was enough to make Anne look up from her porridge. While she knew Harry Potter had been claiming You-Know-Who was back, she wasn't entirely surewell, she thought it might be true, but she didn't know enough to judge. She did know enough to suspect it was the truth - Cedric Diggory was dead, and one thing was for sure, Potter hadn't killed him. Umbridge's decrees seemed to confirm it - she wouldn't go to the trouble of banning an utter fabrication, not her. But this looked like it might give some answers. She leaned over Ellie's shoulder. 

"Look, he's answered _everything_" Sarah was wide-eyed. All around the Great Hall, voices were echoing words close to hers. 

"Oooh, guys, he's said who the Death Eaters were that nightno surprises here" Mai's dad worked for the Ministry, so she should know. "Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Avery, Mulciber, Flinthey, Macnair, hadn't heard that rumour beforeNott -"

"Nott?!" Anne couldn't stop herself. _Dammit! That was just brilliant, wasn't it?_ The other girls turned to look at her. 

"Yeah, his son's in Slytherinworks for the Ministryhey, didn't I see you talking to him yesterday? Near the lake?" Gabby perked up. "Friend of yours, is he?" 

Anne scowled at the memory of Theo's attitude, and had enough sense to carry that on. "Or not." She winced. "Oops." The girls giggled. "No, he was just bored and trying to entertain himself by calling me names. The usual stuff, he left pretty quick when I ignored him. Not surprising, really, if his father works for You-Know-Who." 

"But" Ellie was scanning the article. "GuysI think this is on the level." She sounded scared.   
"He's back?"

"I reckon so."

"That'sbugger." Sarah had a bit of a colourful vocabulary at times. 

Anne sat quietly; she was the only Muggleborn, the only one who didn't quite understand. But the fear, the tension in their voicesshe remembered what she'd been told about the escaped prisoners, and if their leader was back if others were Death Eaters, if there were more than the few who'd escaped, oh, and Sirius Black as well - this wasn't good, this confirmation, it meant that something _was_ coming. Warshow bad had it been, last time? How bad could it get? Her mind flashed back to her conversation with Theo. 

__

And this is all so silly, we're fifteen, and we're worrying about things that will probably never come- _even if Harry Potter's telling the truthwhat can happen ?_

Yes. Worrying about nothing, aren't we?

He knew. His father was a Death Eater, or so it was claimed, it made sense, and if You-Know-Who was returning, then there would be something to worry about. She was what they wanted to get rid of. She was the enemy, to them, only enemy implied equality and that was what they didn't see in her or any Muggleborn. Would Theo have to choose to join him? No, that was melodramatic, yet - what else would he need to be distracted from so badly? This thought of a choice in the future?

__

I swear, I don't - I wouldn't - Death Eaters murder and torture and I couldn't do that to anyone, not even - not you, I promise, do you believe I'd do that? 

No. Not to me, I hope, I don't know, I don't know you quite well enough, but I think not. But you might one day, if you keep believing that. Maybe.

Gabby tugged on Anne's arm. "C'mon, look at this, you have to read it, he talks about what happened to Cedric and everything!"

Anne obediently looked. She would need to know, when she faced Theo. They had some talking to do. On instinct, her eyes flicked up, to the Slytherin table on the other side of the Great Hall. She could see Theo in the distance, dark head bent in conference with Malfoy. Another Death Eater's son. She was going to have to talk to him about this, and sooner than Saturday. Waiting was not really an option. 

__

Do you believe I'd do that?

I don't know. 

Theo was walking briskly down the corridor, just behind Malfoy, on their way to Charms. Malfoy was going on about Potter and how he dared to do something like this, he had no right, and he was going to be in so much trouble with Professor Umbridge. Theo agreed in the same sort of terms. Any lack of proper indignation on his part would be noticed. In truth, he _was_ angry, because it meant that everyone would look at him and seebecause his father would be angry, and he might receive some of the backlash. But a large part of what he felt was resignation. It was, after all, the truth. It had to come out at some point. It might foil the Dark Lord's plans somewhat; but Theo didn't care for them, except in how they might affect him. And what others saw of him. Malfoy and that lot would be more insufferable; the other Slytherins would be more wary; the teachers would ignore it; no-one else mattered. Except-

__

Anne. Oh, no. 

He had absolutely no idea what her reaction would be. Any of the possibilities that seemed likely - fear, anger, calm dismissal - were equally unnerving. He had to talk to her about it, before she got ideas

__

This is crazy. I'm scared that a Muggleborn might not want to speak to me again because my father is a Death Eater. I don't care _what she thinks, I just go because I like playing music and it's nice to play together. The company is irrelevant. _

As they rounded a corner, he saw a group of giggling fourth-years coming the other way; Anne's little group. She was there, talking to an Asian girl with glasses. She made no sign she noticed him, and he looked away from her before anyone could notice. As they passed each other, he saw her stumble and trip. She bumped into him quite heavily, managing to knock him into the wall, grabbing his bag for a second in an attempt to right herself, before falling onto her hands and knees. 

"Oh, Anne, are you all right?" asked the Asian girl, wide eyed. 

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood!" snarled Theo, picking himself up. Anne went bright red. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, are you okay?"

"Idiot clumsy Hufflepuffs, never pay attention to anything!" 

"Who can expect them to? They're only Hufflepuffs, after all. Halfbreeds and Mudbloods" sneered Malfoy. Theo saw the Asian girl's face darken with indignation. 

"Come on, Nott, we might be late." Theo followed him obediently, pausing only to sneer at the Hufflepuff girls. Anne was brushing her sleeves off; she just looked away. One of the others, a gangly girl with dark hair, picked up her bag for her. 

"Ignore them, Anne, they're just gits."

"Well, look at their fathers" muttered a shorter black girl venomously. Theo ignored them in return. He couldn't care less what they thought. But Anne

__

Dammit, why did you have to go and trip then? he thought viciously. _I didn't want to call you that!_

In Charms, he was getting his wand out of his bag when his fingers brushed a crumpled piece of paper. Idly, he pulled it out and looked at it. 

__

Need to talk to you. Practice room, straight after classes, don't worry if you can't get away, we can talk Saturday.

He crumpled it up again and dropped it back in his bag. Please let no-one looking think it was anything more than rubbish

"What was that, Nott, a note from your girlfriend?" Malfoy sounded gleefully curious. 

"Girlfriend? Not likely." It wasn't. He had technically been going out with Tracey Davis for a short time after last year's Yule Ball - a proper pureblood Slytherin - but that had lapsed, and he wasn't really interested in anyone right now. The Slytherins his age were all taken, or unbearable, and that was pretty much his range of options. Malfoy knew that as well as he.

"Just a note from my mother I'd forgotten was in there. I really need to clean my bag out."

Malfoy looked supremely bored at this, and turned away to say something to Goyle. Theo closed his bag and looked towards the teacher. _The best lies are the most plausible. And Annedidn't know the little Hufflepuff had it in her. _An unconscious smile curved his lips. _Well done that girl. _

As he left his last class of the day - Transfiguration - grumbling over the amount of homework they'd received, Theo stopped dead, frowned, and groaned. 

"Oh, damn. Excuse me, I've got to go pick something up, I'll see you at dinner"

He wasn't getting away that easily. 

"What was it, Nott?" inquired Pansy Parkinson, with the air of someone who didn't really care but thought it might be useful to know. 

"Just some music, I left it in one of the practice rooms on Saturday."

"Music?" Malfoy raised his eyebrows. "That's where you disappear off to every Saturday, then?"

"My parents prefer that I keep up my practices during the term time. Music is an accomplishment, after all." Nott didn't need to try very hard to match Malfoy's disdain. 

Malfoy shrugged. "Run along, then. _I_ have better things to do." 

Theo hurried away, thankful for his quick escape. Of course, he'd just cemented Malfoy's view of him as a weak idiot who, while being on the right side, worried about silly things and did what he was told. He couldn't care less any more. Malfoy, after all, was an arrogant git, and he didn't need his favour, just his indifference. Steady on and don't rock any boats; it had worked so far. Then he remembered where he was going, and why, and his smug satisfaction at Malfoy's blindness disintegrated. He was going to have to explain to Anne that yes, his father was a Death Eater who would kill her without thinking twice. She was a Hufflepuff. She'd probably ask him to _justify_ it, or something, as if he was responsible. She'd probably think that he went along with it, which was totally unfair, because of course he didn't want to be a Death Eater, but he was just an evil Slytherin, and that's all she'd see. And he knew he was working himself up to be angry with her to cover the fact that what he was really feeling was shame. Because this was his _father_, and he washe worked for the Dark Lord. 

__

But I'm a Slytherin. And we're not ashamed, ever, because we're Slytherins, and we don't have anything to be ashamed of. Everyone should look up to us. _And I don't care about not speaking to a silly Hufflepuff, even if she plays the flute really well, because I'm a Slytherin, and we walk alone. Right? _

Right? 

Oh, God, what if she does never want to speak to me again? 

Anne was perched on the table when Theo stalked in. He looked like he was in a bit of a temper; at least, he was glowering. He slammed the door behind him, whipped out his wand, and cast a locking spell and a silence spell on it in quick succession. Then he turned to face her, still glaring. 

"Well?"

"Er" Anne struggled for something to say. "I read that article." 

Silence. 

"And?" asked Theo, looking impatient. 

"You know, you didn't have to come if you didn't want to" said Anne, stung by his temper. _She_ hadn't done anything, and she certainly wasn't responsible for Harry Potter's actions, even if she applauded them. Illegal or not, the interview now rested among her Defence notes, charmed to look like an essay on non-retaliatory tactics. The girls had entrusted it to her, saying she was the best at Charms. She had felt the disguise more than appropriate. Umbridge had searched her bag, earlier that day, but passed over the incriminating document without a word. She had raised her eyebrows at the music, however. 

Theo opened his mouth to say something scornful and arrogant - and closed it again. 

"No, I didn't, did I?", he said at length. He pulled his book bag off his shoulder and let it slide to the floor, before leaning back against the door and folding his arms. 

"Do you have a copy of the article?"

"You mean you haven't read it?" asked Anne, puzzled. If it was her family, she'd certainly want to know what was being said. 

He rolled his eyes. "I'm a Slytherin. We've all got orders from home to stay in good with Umbridge, and that means none of us managed to get a copy before it was banned. One'll turn up in the Common Room before too long, though." 

Anne opened her bag and pulled out her Defence folder. "Ummhere we go. This is just the interview, it's from my friend's magazine, but she asked me to look after it." 

"So she wouldn't take the flak if it was found? And you took it?" Theo sounded extremely scornful of her supposed naïveté. Anne's mouth twitched. 

"No, because I'm the best at Charms in our class, so I could hide it the best. Ellie wouldn't do that to me. We're nice loyal Hufflepuffs, after all." She handed him the interview. 

He took it, but raised his eyebrows when he began to read. "Non-retaliatory tactics?"

"Oops." Anne reddened slightly, sliding off the table and moving towards him to take it back.

"Forgot to take the charm off." She returned to pull her wand out of her schoolbag and tapped the paper. _"Finite incantem." _

The three or four sheets shifted to become pages torn from a magazine. Theo crossed the room to peer over her shoulder. While the writing was in Rita Skeeter's lurid style, the facts were still there. Anne shifted slightly; Theo was standing close enough to make her remember she was in a locked room with a Slytherin. A Slytherin boy. Of course, it was Theo, but even so, it wasuncomfortable. She turned around and held it out. 

"Here, I've already read it once." 

He had moved back when she'd turned, but not very much. Just enough to move over slightly and lounge against the table next to her, scanning the pages with a frown. Anne pushed herself back up to sit on it again. He was fast; the whole thing didn't take more than two or three minutes. Anne watched him as he read. His dark hair was a bit long; it kept flopping over into his eyes, and he kept pushing it out. He needed a haircut, she mused. And he bit his nails. Anne could commiserate over that, having only managed to cure herself of the habit shortly before arriving at Hogwarts. Abruptly he looked up at her. She jumped, and nearly slipped off the table. 

"You were staring" he said brusquely. 

"UhI was?" she said, a bit guiltily. He was right, damn him. 

He looked back down at the interview, and sighed. "Well, Potter had guts to tell all this, but then, he is Gryffindor. From what I knownot that Dad ever says all that much, not to me anyway, but the details match enough. He's telling the truth about everything, in case you were wondering."

His dark eyes were rueful when he looked back at her. "I knew about most of this, but I couldn't precisely say it. The Dark Lord doesn't want everyone to know he's back, not until _he's_ ready for them to know. And I'd be in more trouble thanwell, I'd be in over my head, if I'd let something slip."

Anne felt her words freeze in her throat. She'd been ready for denial, or pushing the issue aside, or being told that she didn't understand or need to know, but this simple admittance of the facts

"Your father, then"

Theo chuckled cynically. "Oh yes, that's true enough. My beloved father, Death Eater, murderer, torturer, and subverter of Ministry politics for the Dark Lord. Not that his standing will be damaged by this. Fudge is so blind to the truth it's bloody laughable. He practically does what the Dark Lord's followers tell him, and shoves Dumbledore out in the cold."

Anne bit her lip. He seemed so unfazed by this, and yet

"Don't you mind that everyone knows?" she blurted out. "I mean, people willthey'll hate you for this! There are lots of peopleI mean, in my House, Susan Bones, her grandparents were killed by Death Eaters, Cedric Diggory, last yearlots of people have been hurt by them. Sarah Cartwright, you don't know her, she's a friend of mine, her mother's parents were killed by, what's-his-name, Dolohov. The one who escaped from Azkaban. Because her grandfather was a Muggle, because they were in the way. They weren't even a threat, and they died. And you don't care people know your father" 

"That would mean I cared what they thought." Theo shrugged. "The Slytherins won't, most of them are in the same position as me, the other ones are in the minority. The teachers are all too professional to change their opinion of us, except Snape, and he's biased towards us; Umbridge thinks it's a lot of lies; there's no-one else to care about." 

"Well, thanks a lot" said Anne. "You could have mentioned you didn't care what I thought." 

He looked surprised, and then said "Butyou don't care. I thought. You were just asking why _I _ didn't care more, you weren'tor do you?"

His happy mood - and he had been happy, when he'd stopped being angry, Anne suddenly realised - dropped away. "You do, don't you." 

"Don't be ridiculous" Anne said sharply. "Of course I'm not blaming you for what your father is. You're the one I see every week, not him. I'm just" she trailed off. "Just surprised you don't seem to care about it more." 

Theo smiled slightly, out of nowhere. "That's okay then."

"So you don't care about it." 

"I don't _think_ about it." His tone was flat. "I don't think about it, because there is nothing I can do, except not do the same as my parents. I don't think about it because I'm afraid they'll realise I've stopped agreeing entirely with them. I don't think about it because my goal, right now, is for no-one to notice me or make me swear oaths or do anything I don't want to, until I'm of age, and then I will be out of here. As far away from this stupid bloody war as I possibly can be." 

"You'd just run?" 

He looked at her consideringly. "Wouldn't you?"

"No, I'd have to stay, and, and help, or, or something. Help fight it. Because it _is_ so wrong. Because it's so unfair, to look at anyone and think it's okay to kill them - especially when I'm one of the people that your - that Death Eaters think it's okay to kill. Isn't that - won't you do that?" 

He laughed, seeming slightly astonished. 

"My own neck comes first. You Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs can fight for what's right. I just want to live where I'm not touched by it all." 

Anne narrowed her eyes. 

"So if it was meif I was being tortured, or someone was going to kill me, because I was Mugglebornyou'd just walk away."

Theo paused for a moment, considering his reply. When he did speak, it seemed to Anne as if the answer surprised him as much as her. 

"No, of cou- no, I wouldn't. But that's different. I know you. Friends are different from people you don't know." 

She turned her head to look straight up at him. Friends. Maybemaybe. Yes. 

"We are friends, then? Even if I'm on the list of evil influences to be exterminated so He Who Must Not Be Named can rise to power?"

"Even if." Theo seemed to have come to a decision of some sort; he offered her a tentative hand. "If you don't mind being friends with a Death Eater's son." 

"Well, even evil gets forgiven for being willing to turn up and play the piano every week," Anne said lightly. She took his hand firmly. "And trying to explain Quidditch."

Theo smiled back. "Thanks, little Hufflepuff." He squeezed her hand, just a little too tightly, as if transferring some hidden tension there. So Anne squeezed back even harder, and then they were both letting go and shaking sore hands and laughing, and for just a second everything except the laughter could be forgotten. 

__

Because that's what being friends is. Making the bad things go away for just a second.   
It's never going to be more than a second, though.


	4. Understandings

****

A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far ( any of my stories ) - abigail odolf, darth roden, Deaths Angels, malexandria, Shaiala Riale, Slide Writer, That Aerin, and tracey claybon. I would probably have never posted anything past chapter two without those reviews; I was beginning to feel there was no point if no-one was reading it. The rest of Distractions will now probably be up by, oh, next Friday - it's only 6 chapters in all.   
Oh, yes, and major kudos to anyone outside of NZ who can identify the _real_ people some of Anne's male classmates are named for

****

Chapter Four — Understandings

Theo was glad he'd managed to talk with Anne properly before the Easter holidays; they passed in a rush of study as OWLs drew closer. After the _Quibbler_ interview, and their discussion, things had paradoxically become easier between them. He knew that she didn't care about his father, and wasn't going to tell anyone she was still meeting him; she seemed to be satisfied that he valued her as a friend. Saturdays had turned less and less to music, and more and more to talking; although they were still playing quite a bit. Anne had commented sadly that it was a shame they didn't have anyone to perform a piece to, as she thought they were getting quite good; but then, as Theo had wryly noted, the only people who'd be willing to come listen were maybe Anne's family, who had no idea about wizarding politics. And that wasn't precisely an option. So they continued to play for themselves, while the school around them crumbled.

Things had been getting worse and worse, until Dumbledore's attempted arrest and flight - which Anne declared was "the last straw."

"Honestly, Umbridge just makes me want to throw something! At her! Dumbledore isn't anything they called him, he's brilliant! And now he's gone, it's going to be even worse, with Malfoy and his gang taking points of everyone else, it's all sodepressing." 

Theo shrugged. They were sitting on the far side of the lake; Anne was hunched up, knees under her chin, staring miserably across to the castle. Theo was leaning back against a tree. They had a good view out if anyone came their way. It was the Easter holidays, too, so a lot of the younger students had gone home; Hogwarts was no longer regarded as a suitable place to leave children over the holidays by many parents, Muggle and wizard alike. Theo had felt a bit trapped in the castle and had suggested getting outside for a bit, as long as it was somewhere they couldn't be sprung. A couple of other places they'd tried had already been occupied by couples who were also looking to not be interrupted, if for different reasons. A long wander had led them to this spot, half-hidden in a fold of ground and far enough away that no-one was likely to bother them. 

"Just keep your head down. You haven't got into any trouble so far; let Potter and his crowd do that."

She turned to look at him reproachfully. "Easy for you to say. You're in Slytherin, you're not losing any points, and you're part of her stupidInquisitorial thingy. You've got the power."

Theo tucked one leg under the other. "Yes. Safest place to be in a time like this. I'm a Ministry official's son, of course I'm going to be on Umbridge's side, aren't I?"

Anne sniffed. "So was Marietta Edgecombe, and look what happened to her. Jinxed for narking on Potter and everyone. They were definitely up to something."

"Probably practicing Defence Against the Dark Arts. All the people who were on that list believe Potter's story; well, everyone does after that interview, but they were the ones who were supporting him before that. I'll bet they were practising so they could fight when the Dark Lord reveals himself." 

"What list?"

"Oh, they were stupid enough to write their names down and leave the list where Parkinson could find it, when they were found out. She took the opportunity to read it, so half of Slytherin knows who's for Potter, now." 

"Where _were_ you that day, anyway?" asked Anne in a rush. She didn't look at him, but tossed a pebble into the lake. "Did you go and"

Theo raised an eyebrow. "You think? Give everyone on the other side another reason to hate me, apart from being a Slytherin and my father's son?"

Anne's shoulders relaxed slightly. "So how did you get out of it, then?" 

"Well," he said "I unfortunately had this absolutely massive Ancient Runes translation, so I took myself off to the Library to work on it, and would you believe it, no-one could find me when they did that raid. I'd forgotten they were going to, after all, stress with all this homework and the OWLs coming up. I was _most_ disappointed. So was Malfoy - he seemed to feel I'd really let the side down. Tragic, isn't it?" 

They both laughed. Theo's thoughts were tinged with regret. Anne hadn't wanted to think he would get people into trouble with Umbridge like that - that he was better than the other Slytherins of his year. He hadn't done it, but his motivations had been far more selfish. And he somehow wished they _hadn't_ been, that the person he was matched the person Anne seemed to see. She wasn't stupidjust unwilling to think badly of a friend. Innocent. He pulled himself away from his musings. He wasn't about to change, and he didn't want Anne to, so there was no point worrying about it. Anne would shed some more of her illusions soon enough, if the Ministry continued to be so stupid.

"You're really interested in staying out of this altogether," Anne was saying. "Do you really think you can?" 

"Why not?"

"I don't know, it just seemsa bit optimistic. What if someone on our side decides you're a threat? What if someone on You-Know-Who's side decides you're not dedicated enough? What if-"

"Enough with the what ifs. Let the future look after itself, little Hufflepuff. I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?' asked Anne innocently. 

Theo shot her a very reproachful look and reached out a long arm to ruffle her hair. "I would hope so. Do you know what you're doing?"

Anne muttered something and unwrapped her arms from around her knees to start patting her hair back into place. 

"No-one notices me. I'm safe." 

"You're Muggleborn. That's not safe." 

She turned to look at him, eyes wide with worry. "You think I"

He shook his head quickly. No need to spoil things by scaring her, not now. Not when in a few months, probably-

"No. You'll be fine, I'm sure. As long as you keep an eye out." 

"That's okay then, is it?" 

This cut too close to the bone. Theo patted the ground between them. "Move over." 

"Why?" 

"It's cold." 

"Whatever. It's April! Spring! It's supposed to be getting warmer!" 

Anne moved over anyway, and Theo put a very tentative arm around her shoulders. Warmth was an excuse, he knew thatbut so what. It was comfortable. It was safe, and that was an unusual feeling. Across the lake the lights were beginning to shine from the castle windows. The days weren't yet that long. 

"We should probably go in to dinner, or people are going to wonder where we are" she said eventually. 

"We should," agreed Theo. Neither of them moved for a while. 

Anne got back to the Hufflepuff Common Room just before sunset; the temperature had dropped rapidly, and she was rosy with cold and the walk back. As she entered the Common Room, she could see Ellie and Mai by the fire. Sarah and Gabby had gone home over the holidays, but Anne had chosen not to. The only other Hufflepuff fourth-years still at Hogwarts were Dave Hewett and Brian Lochore, who were nowhere to be seen. The other boys, Chris Cullen, Jeremy Smith and Jack Mitchell, had all returned home. There was quite a gender divide in Anne's year; the boys tended to keep to themselves. Well, Sarah and Jeremy had been keeping to themselves in a more specific way involving empty classrooms, but that had ended rather nastily. Gabby was attempting to keep to herself with Chris, but he was so far oblivious. 

Anne meandered over to the fire and sat down beside Mai on the couch. She was still rather cold, and leaned over to warm her hands. 

"Where've you been?", asked Ellie lazily. "You've been gone an hour or so." 

"Just for a walk. It was getting stuffy in here." Anne unwrapped the yellow and black scarf she wore from around her neck; it _was_ a lot warmer in the Common Room. 

"Long walk", Mai said non-comittally. 

"Oh, I just felt like it, I guess." 

"Away from our chatter? Fair enough". Mai grinned. "Sometimes I'd like to get as far away as possible, too." 

"Sure you weren't off to see your secret boyfriend?" Ellie's eyes twinkled. The joke was longstanding; it had started last year, even though Anne had been going off by herself to practice the flute since first year. 

__

Slightly more truth to it now, though. 

"Isn't that getting a bit old?" Anne said tartly to cover the thought. "I've never accused any of you of that."

"Yeah, but one, we're pack animals, we travel in groups, and two, if you accused us, it'd be true. No fun in that." 

"True?" Mai sat up like a hound scenting prey. "Are you implying something here, Ellie?"

"No" but Ellie's half-smile indicated that she was, and this was her way of bringing it up. 

"Go on!"

"Well" Ellie grinned sheepishly. "I'm kind of seeing Daniel Prentice." 

"In Gryffindor? Ooh, going a bit far afield, aren't we?" 

Anne let Mai and Ellie play out their banter in peace, watching the firelight flickering over the couch and their faces. They made quite a contrast, Mai short and compact, with short hair curling at the level of her chin, and oval glasses framing her eyes; Ellie a good head taller, all legs and arms, covered in freckles with her straggly dark hair half-way down her back, nearly out of its plaits. It made Anne wonder sometimes; how five girls from all corners of England could share a dorm with never a fight over who or what they were. Mai was Vietnamese, Sarah's mother from Jamaica, Gabby Welsh. Ellie and Anne were the only two both born in England, and then Ellie was Cornish and Anne born in Manchester even if she did live in Essex now. But none of that mattered, where at Anne's primary school it would have drawn blows and insults; you kept to your own groups. Here it was all so different. Race and country didn't matter in the slightest. Anne loved it, loved the calm, loved being able to sit here and just watch and know no fight was going to break out over something so stupid. 

But then, there was the issue of magical blood to divide them; her Muggleborn, Ellie and Sarah half-bloods, Mai and Gabby full, and that had led to some problems in first year. Mai and Gabby giggling over something, and then being a touch too know-it-all in explaining to the others. They were long past that, however. 

__

There was just the occasional insult from the Slytherins to remind me of itand then along came Theo, who didn't even seem to think I was quite human. And he hated to have to think about that, still hates it. But we're both changing, in a way. I can understand the insults, now. It's explained, not excused. And he may not have changed what he thinks, but he's learned to make exceptions, an exception anyway. Me. Where will that lead us?   
Nowhere. He still thinks Muggleborns aren't magic enough, I still wouldn't be caught dead talking to a Slytherin.   
Still. It's nice to know that exceptions can happen. 

With the OWLs creeping closer, Theo asked Anne on the first Sunday after the Easter holidays if they could cut back practices to once every two weeks. 

"I should probably be studying, I'm expected to get good marks, and if I don't practice for the Defence OWL I'll be stuffed. Half of it's practical and I haven't learned a thing this year, not with that cow Umbridge. Makes me half wish I'd been part of Potter's group, they probably got some work in." 

Anne drummed her fingers on the top of the piano for a moment. 

"Well, we could practice the practical stuff here" she suggested eventually. "I mean, there's no rule against it, and this room'd actually be big enough if we cleared everything to one end. There's only the two of us in here, after all." 

"Means not getting much playing done, though. I'm amazed Malfoy's never come to check up on me, and it's stretching credibility slightly for me to be here more than a couple of hours a week."

"We'll manage. I should be studying a bit too, and with the school as it is now" 

They exchanged wry glances. No-one was getting too much work done, really, what with the chaos that had come with Umbridge being Headmistress. It was just a mercy things hadn't started getting this bad during the Easter holidays. 

"True. Those Weasley twinsthey should almost be in Slytherin."

"I thought Slytherins were with authority, now."  
"The important word in that sentence is _now_," Theo pointed out. "Only when it suits us. And half the House has orders from home to be Umbridge's pets, since she's so blind about the Dark Lord. If she wasn't, we'd be running riot."

"But the rest of us wouldn'tlike we didn't for Dumbledore" Anne responded. "It can be quite fun." 

"Are you implying you're responsible for any of this?" Theo was quite startled. "I didn't think that was a Hufflepuff thing to do." 

Anne chuckled. "Promise not to tell?"

"That would involve admitting I know you exist, remember?"

"Fair enough. You know how the teacher's desk in Umbridge's classroom was charmed last week to start playing a song every time she touched it?"

Theo grinned. "We were the first class she had after that happened. I'm impressed. How did you manage _that_?"

"Took a bit of work, but once we had the idea it was really a matter of finding the right spells, and they're all there if you look. The only real difficulty was finding a time-delay spell so it didn't start working until twenty hours after our last class in there. Otherwise it'd be too obvious it was us, or someone in our class. I wouldn't fall under suspicion myself, but my friends would." 

"Nice. Did you hear Umbridge had to get Flitwick to take it off? Took her two days. What was the name of the song, anyway? I didn't recognise it, but the lyrics seemedvery appropriate."

Anne snickered, and hummed the first few bars. "Do you hear the people sing...A Muggle song, from a musical. It's quite well known, actually - I think most of the Muggleborn kids got it right away, but the words pretty much say what it was about."

"A revolution? Thought so. How did you come up with the idea? " 

" It wasn't my idea, actually, it was Gabby Hayle's. I thought of the song, and we all looked up the spells. I found the time-delay charm. It was in this book I was looking up for a Charms essay." 

"What's the spell? I haven't heard of it." 

"I think - no, wait, I'm not sure, and I don't have the book anymore. Don't want to give you a spell I'm not sure about, if you tried it"

"..and it _was _wrongI see what you mean. What was the-" Theo stopped mid-sentence. He was taking advice about magic of a _Muggleborn_ witch. He was praising her for something she couldn't possibly be good at! Maybe she wasn't telling the whole truth, but- 

But this was Anne, and she was good at Charms. He remembered the magazine interview

__

No, because I'm the best at Charms in our class, so I could hide it the best. And she had no reason to lie. Maybe

Maybe Muggleborns could be good at magic. After all, Hermione Granger was the smartest witch in his year, everyone knew that. Harry Potter had managed to tie for the Triwizard tournament at fourteen, and he was a halfblood. After all, if his parents were wrong about killing Muggleborns, could they be wrong about

"Theo?" A small hand was being waved in front of his face. "Theodore Nott, you still here?"

"Uh, yes, um, where were we? Practising Defence. Good idea. Yes." 

"You sound a bit distracted" said Anne dryly. "Something wrong?"

__

You seem to be forcing me to re-evaluate things I've never doubted before, you make me think about things I don't want to, you have from the first time I saw you, and it's not even anything you do! It's what you are that's doing it! And, you know, you're actually quite pretty, not that I've ever thought about that before either, and I-  
Help. 

"No. Nothing."

"Liar." Anne began to put her flute away. "Don't tell me, then." She seemed vaguely amused, if anything. 

"I tell you too much as it is." 

"How do you define too much?" she questioned. "You mean, things you wouldn't tell someone else, or things you shouldn't tell, and why are they that?"

Theo frowned thoughtfully. "Things that I wouldn't tell, because I shouldn't, because if I want to stay neutral in this war then I need everyone to see me how I want them to see me. Irrelevant, or subservient, or just not at all. If I tell people what I think, then I run the risk of them seeing me, not the person I want them to see, and then everything goes to hell." He shrugged. "Might as well give up on that with you, though. You know far too much already." 

"But if you do that, no-one will ever like you, because you'll be too stuck on being safe. What's the point in being alive if you aren't enjoying it?" 

"What's the point in being dead?"

"Better to live properly and die than to spend your whole life trying to stay alive and never _living_."

"That's a contradiction in terms."

"No, it isn't." 

"You don't mind me, don't you?"

Anne seemed a little taken aback by this. "Well, not _too_ much."

Theo chose to ignore the implication. "There you go. I do have someone who likes me. So it's all OK, isn't it?" 

He smiled at her engagingly. She just shook her head. "I'm your escape clause, then?"

"Escape clause?" What did that mean?

She chuckled. "The exception to the rules. You keep your head down and let people see what you want them to, except for me. So I'm the only person you let get close enough to know you, and to like you. Your little escape clause on your whole neutrality thing." 

He'd never looked at it that way before. "That's an interesting way to put it."

"But it's a true way to put it, I think. Apart from your family, they must know who you are really." 

"My familymy opinions have changed quite a bit since I last saw them. My parents still see the person I wasthe person they wanted me to be."

"You don't have any brothers or sisters?"

"Pureblood families don't go in for lots of children. Well, the Weasleys, of course, but they're blood traitors. Too many kids iscommon." 

Anne rolled her eyes, shoving her flute case in her bag along with her music. "Well, there goes my family, then."

"Your family are Muggles." He winced as he said it; it was true, but he wasn't in the mood for an argument and if that didn't start one - 

She took a step towards him and put her hands on her hips. The effect was slightly spoiled by the fact she had to tilt her head upward to look at him properly. 

"There is nothing wrong with my family!"

"They're not magic."

"That's not their fault!"

Theo felt trapped. Her family _were_ only Muggles, butthey were her family, so naturally she would care about them. And they'd managed to avoid topics like this for so long 

"Uh, I'm not meaning to insult them or anything-"

"You better not be!"

"-they're just not like us. We have magic. They don't. They never will. They don't belong." 

"We. Well, at least you're not saying I" She seemed to relax slightly, and her gaze had more thought than anger now. "You and me?" 

"Is there anyone else in the room?"

"Hey, you could have been using the royal we."

Theo scoffed. "Please, I'm not Malfoy. I have _some_ sense of proportion." 

"Good." She let one hand drop from her hips. "They're my family, you know" she said simply. "That doesn't change, even if I'm a witch. My sisters still might have magic, they're not eleven yet." 

"How many brothers and sisters do you have, anyway?" 

"One brother, two sisters. My brother, Edmund, he's thirteen. He waspretty upset when he didn't get a letter. Theresa and Nicola - my sisters - they're ten and seven, so they won't know for a little while. Theresa might get one this summer, if she is a witch. I'd love to have family at Hogwarts." 

"You miss them, don't you?" asked Theo quietly. 

"Yes." She seemed to droop a little. "It's a long time without them, and since I didn't go home these holidaysthree more months. I love magic, and all, but I do miss them."

Theo put a very tentative hand on her shoulder. The mood she was in, there was every chancebut luckily for him, she didn't snap. 

"I don't see much of my family, either," he ventured. 

"Yes, well, that's different" said Anne moodily. 

"Why?" Theo was stung by her comment. It was rather unlike Anne. 

"Well, they, they're, ummyou know" She was engaging in a rather absorbed study of the floor. Theo suddenly understood. His grip tightened. 

"Are you saying that because my parentsbecause my father's a Death Eater, I can't miss them as much as you miss your family?" 

Anne shuffled her feet. "Um, maybe. No. That's not fair. But, uh, I., I"

"Oh, so you are. No, that isn't fair. Just because they'reit doesn't mean I don't care about them! For God's sake, Anne, they're my parents! My father might have gone out and murdered Muggleborns before I was born, but that doesn't change how he treats me! Or my mother! That's just as bloody prejudiced as me saying your family don't matter because they're Muggles, and you know it! You're smarter than that! You're supposed to be the open-minded one, dammit!"

"Theo, it hurts!" He realised he was gripping both her shoulders now, quite hard, and yelling. Anne was looking up at him, eyes wide with shock. He'd never yelled at her before, he thought absently. 

Slowly he released his grip. Anne didn't move. He let his hands drop. 

"Isorry?"

She bit her lip. "You were right. I was being unfair. I didn't really think - you hear about people like that, and you think that because theythey're dark, or work for You-Know-Who, they must not care about anyone else. But it's not true, is it?"

"No." Theo hated the way she looked right now, all depressed and meek. The thought crossed his mind that this was how he'd thought she should look all the time, on a blustery Saturday when he'd been avoiding going to the Quidditchit seemed ages ago, not four months. 

"Never mind. We're both allowed to make mistakes, right?"

A spark of humour crept into her eyes. "You just told me I should be open-minded all the time, and I wasn't then."

"But you are, little Hufflepuff."

"Why do you always call me that?"

"Do you mind?"

"Only sometimes." Anne suddenly threw her arms around him. 

"I'm sorry, too, Theo, I'm just feeling all depressed and homesick because it's so awful with Umbridge in charge and no-one ever really listens to me, except you, and you don't sometimes because you don't understand, and now I feel really _really_ stupid and-"

Theo stiffened for a second, then put his arms around her a bit awkwardly. After all, he was a teenage boy, and he would be lying to say he wasn't enjoying the feeling of holding her. He had the impression this opportunity might not come his way all that often. Some of her words struck a chord_you don't understand_. How often had he thought to himself that Anne couldn't possibly understand, she was Muggleborn, she didn't seeblindness, it appeared, worked both ways. 

"We can just both not understand together, then, how about that?"

Anne's reluctant laugh was muffled by his chest. "Okay then. Not understanding seems to have worked so far, hasn't it?"

Theo allowed himself to lean his chin on her head, and eke out the moment. After all, it wasn't as if he'd have many moments in his life to hug pretty Muggleborn girls, even this one, so he might as well make the most of it. Neutrality, after all, still had to come first. And Anne was a break in neutrality that could be very dangerous. Still, no reason not to enjoy it for now. 


	5. Tests

****

A/N:Just one more chapter to go

****

Chapter Five - Tests

May passed, and it was halfway through June before Anne had time to blink. School had dissolved into chaos; Anne had spent one whole rather frustrating evening teaching her dormmates the Bubble-head charm, so they didn't suffocate between classes. She didn't have it perfectly herself, but something was better than nothing. She'd learned it off Theo. He'd been grumbling about the necessity for it when he'd arrived one Saturday; apparently there had been a run in with something devised by the Weasley twins along the way. Since it had been a study Saturday, rather than a music one, Anne had asked him to teach her the charm. It had taken a good ten minutes to get through the objections of "I think this would be too hard for you" and "You're only a fourth-year." Anne had answered the first with a reminder of the Umbridge desk incident, and the second with persistence. Theo had eventually given in, the grumbling changing topic to damn Hufflepuffs who didn't know when to stop. Anne had just smiled. 

The last Saturday before exams had been spent in a fury of revision, Theo calling up all the jinxes, hexes, and curses he knew, and then some. Anne had only consented to provide target practice for these if he would do the same for her - after all, as she noted, she had tests too. He had, she thought, relished practising on her entirely too much. Well, he was Slytherin, after allyou couldn't expect too much in the way of consideration. She got her own back a bit in the second half of the session. She'd managed to learn quite a few spells off watching and being target practice for Theo; he hadn't been hampered at all by Umbridge's lack of teaching. 

"Where did you learn all these spells, anyway?" she'd asked curiously. 

"Home", he'd said tersely. 

She'd left it at that. 

They called a halt at about four o'clock; Theo declared he needed to get back to his Common Room to do some theory revision. 

"You're going to be in for it next year, with the OWLs," he told her gloomily.

"They can't be _that_ bad" Anne replied. "I mean, you're still alive, right?"

"Oh, very funny. I think I cracked a rib." 

"Ah, you have no sense of humour, you know that?"

"Stop being so bloody cheerful."

Anne smirked. "I thought cheerful was my job."

"What's mine, then?"

"Gloom, despair, depression, that sort of thing"

"Then shut up and leave me to my despair and darkness." Theo said the last in a rather theatrical tone, belying the actual words. 

Anne squeezed his shoulder quickly before departing. It seemed to unsettle him a little bit, but she was getting away with it so far. It was her opinion Theo could do with some unsettling. 

"I'll see you next Saturday, then." 

"_If_ I'm still alive." 

"How about this, we have a Hogsmeade weekend next Saturday, so I'll go in and get a couple of Butterbeers, and then I'll come back here and commiserate with you over how badly you did." 

Theo granted her a very dirty look. 

"I'm a Slytherin. We don't do badly."

"What are you worrying for, then?" 

"I'm being smiled to death." 

"Fine, mope on your own." Anne left in a slight huff. While Theo had actually been more light-hearted than normal today, she wished he wouldn't slip back into his I-am-a-Slytherin-therefore-I-am-superior mode. It had taken so long for him to drop it, and she didn't think it would take all that much to put it back up. She had been right in what she'd said a few weeks ago; she was, for reasons unknown, Theo's exception. She'd witnessed him taking points off Sarah for no real reason, just yesterday; while Malfoy watched approvingly. The disdain on his face had been real, she was sure. He really did still think that Muggleborns were, quite simply, "not the same as us". She seemed to have been placed in a special category marked "Anne." He'd told her he hated to think about it, and she'd made him think. Now he seemed to have reached a decision. He didn't want to be a Death Eater; he didn't want to fight them; he just wanted to stay out of the way, and that meant blending in with Malfoy's crowd without drawing attention to himself. He didn't like Muggleborns or halfbloods, but he didn't think they should be killed or tortured for being what they were. He wouldn't be caught dead talking to a Muggleborn. She had made him think about his own attitudes; and then he'd managed to place her in a special box, and forget. Sometimes, of course, he did remember; the days he spoke down to her, as if she were a child, or lacked understanding. But wasn't she just as prejudiced, thinking that he couldn't love his parents because of what they were? And hadn't she caught herself just yesterday joining in with the other girls, complaining about how all the Slytherins were such jerks, and wouldn't we just die if we were in Slytherin, and I hope we don't have too many classes with them next year.

__

We're both prejudicedand it probably isn't going to go awayso maybe I should just be thankful that we have this time outside of everyone else to talk. We wouldn't be speaking for more than five minutes otherwise

That disturbed Anne slightly, the thought that their friendship might not last taking it, metaphorically, outside that small practice room. It was a careful construct, built in a place where the rules had been temporarily disabled; would it work in real life?

__

Not something we're ever likely to find out, is it?

*

That evening in her dorm, Anne was curled up in bed listening to the other girls chatter. 

"So where do you go every Saturday, Anne?" asked Mai unexpectedly. "You just slip off, you never say where you're going"

Anne was sure she'd told them, but then, would they have listened?

"I go and practice my flute, of course" she said. "I've been doing it for four years, you know." 

"Are you sure that's all you're doing?" asked Gabby slyly. 

Anne stiffened. "What else would I be doing?"

"Well, if it was anyone else, we'd say you were creeping off to snog your secret Slytherin boyfriend or something" grinned Ellie. 

Fortunately at least half that sentence prompted incredulity rather than panic, and Anne managed to roll her eyes. 

"Guys, a boyfriend? Me? A _Slytherin_? How many Slytherins do I know? Besides, that joke's getting old." 

"Well, that fifth-year, what's his name, Nott, he stopped to insult you once, maybe it's a sign he likes you" teased Sarah. 

"Please, the guy's a jerk. He's part of Malfoy's little squad," Ellie interjected on Anne's behalf. "I'd hope you'd have better taste than that." 

"Well, Malfoy's not so bad looking himself" said Mai thoughtfully. "All that Quidditch playing"

This was answered by shrieks of derision and thrown pillows. Anne watched the others get into a gleeful pillow fight, only dragged in herself when a bad throw by Gabby hit her. That conversation had been way too close to the mark. She was creeping off to meet a Slytherin, after all - Theodore Nott, in particular. She was certainly not - well, why did her friends all have to be so gutter-minded, anyway? She and Theo had a hard enough time managing friendship, let alone -

Anne jumped on that thought as soon as it came along and squashed it. What was the matter with her? She'd clearly been spending far too much time around girls who thought that any interaction with boys beyond the requirements of class clearly meant you were dating. They were the ones who'd all been gossiping about Hermione Granger and Harry Potter last year, for instance, and met Anne's suggestion that they might really just be friends with uncomprehending stares. Her note that Granger spent just as much time with Ron Weasley received the comment that why would anyone pick him when they could have Harry Potter? Which dissolved into giggles over the apparent merits of the two Gryffindor boys. 

__

If they knew I'd been seeing TheoI mean meeting him once a week, dammitsince February, they'd have a field day. And I don't like him. Like that, anyway. I can't_. End of story. _

Still, the thoughts about Theo did not exactly go away. They more lingered in the back of her brain. 

__

That's it, I've been corrupted. Oh, for home and sisters to whom boys are just irritating. I miss home. _I'll miss Hogwarts, though, all the magicI don't know where I'll be without it. I've been spoiled by being able to Summon everything I lose. I'll even miss the girls. They are my friends, after all. And I'll definitely miss Theo-_

Theo, again? _Help! Someone! Anyone! _

*

Anne had her end-of-year exams that week, too, and she spent all of her spare time studying. She had never been brilliant at school, but she could put her mind down to studying, which was more than could be said for Ellie, say, or Sarah, at times. The exams were not terribly taxing, but did mean work; the worst was definitely Herbology, which Anne left sure she'd failed. Potions was nerve-wracking, but thankfully Professor Snape chose to spend the time peering over everyone else's shoulders, not hers. Care of Magical Creatures was easy, Arithmancy gave her a headache, and Astronomy was thankfully blessed with a lovely clear night. History of Magic was boring, but since it relied on the remembrance of facts rather than intuitive brilliance, she was fairly sure she'd done well. Her last two exams were the ones she'd always done best at; Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Defence was boring. All they were required to do was regurgitate large passages from the textbook; Professor Umbridge clearly wanted them to know no practical spells. Anne was highly disappointed, given that she'd managed some fairly good hexes when working with Theo. She'd been looking forward to trying them out. Charms was fun; she had known what to do for the practical spells, and had only missed a couple of questions on the written test. Really, the worst bit of exam week was the other girls' insistence on worrying so openly, and discussing what they had or hadn't done right. That was mainly Mai; Anne and the other three managed to shut her up eventually. 

The last day was marked by a sour note, though. Hagrid's attempted arrest and flight, Professor McGonagall's injury. The fourth-years heard all about it from the fifth-years, who had had a perfect view from the Astronomy Tower; the stern witch had been knocked down by four Stunners, and taken to St. Mungo's. Hagrid had got away. Anne felt shocked and uncertain; she quite liked the Transfiguration teacher, who was scrupulously fair and told you what you were doing wrong in a way that meant you could fix it. Hagrid was brilliant; he wasn't, maybe, the best at being a teacher, but he loved the subject, and he was fair to all the students. Anne remembered Theo's dismissive words concerning the half-giant, and hoped that he was feeling some remorse at what had happened. Certainly the whole school was firmly against Umbridge more than ever. Even some of the Slytherins had been seen shooting her - and her Inquisitorial squad - dirty looks. They were not popular. 

It was the morning after her last exams that Anne guessed it must have happened; well, the night before, more likely. She didn't get the full details until Sunday, but what she saw that Friday was upsetting enough. Anne had finished breakfast and was passing the Slytherin table on her way back to the Common Room; she intended to grab her cloak and then go catch some sun by the lake with her friends. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Theo ripping open a letter that a large owl had just delivered to him. It looked quite short; he didn't seem unduly concerned by it. As soon as he read it, though

His face paled, and he scanned it again to be sure. Then he let it drop. He looked likeAnne wasn't sure, but she was sure she never, ever, wanted to see that expression on anyone else's face. Or to know what could cause it. Several others at the same table wore similar expressions; all, Anne realised, Death Eaters' children. She wanted more than anything to run over and ask him what was wrong, but that was not precisely an option. Death Eaterstrouble at the end of the yearAnne stopped at the door to look over to the Gryffindor table. No red-headed Weasleys could be seen; nor could Harry Potter's black mop. It wasn't a sure sign, but Anne knew the stories, and she would wager anything Harry Potter had had another encounter with Death Eaters last night. Of course, it could be all a coincidence, but the way the Gryffindors were looking around like someone was missing, and the looks on those Slytherins' faces

__

God, I hope Theo's father is all right, it'll kill him if he isn't thought Anne as she left the Great Hall. She was halfway to her dorm before the incongruity of wishing a Death Eater well struck her. 

She got her cloak from her dormitory and was crossing the Common Room when Ellie and Sarah bounced in. The Common Room was still slightly messy; the fifth and seventh years had thrown a bit of a celebration the night before, and the house elves had clearly had little or no time to tidy up before everyone got up again. This was supported by the fact no Hufflepuff fifth or seventh year had emerged in time for breakfast, even Ernie Macmillan. 

Anne's two fellow fourth-years swooped like hawks the instant they spotted her. 

"C'mon, Anne, we came all the way back up here to look for you! How can you be inside, it's such a nice day, and we don't have any classes!"

"Mai and Gabby are down by the lake, let's go!" 

Anne allowed them to hustle her out of the Common Room, through the castle and out to a sunny bank by the lake, where Mai and Gabby were already stretched out on the grass, chatting away. She snuck a glance back at the castle. Where was Theo? What had happened? Anne spread her cloak out and flopped down on it. 

"Hey, Anne, where were you? We had to send Ellie and Sarah to look for you!" Gabby was even bubblier than usual, due to a lack of exams. 

"Just getting my cloak. You sound happy."

"Of course I'm happy! No more exams! Why aren't you?"

Anne smiled gently, but worry was chipping away on the inside. "I am happy"

"But you're never _excited_ about anything" complained Sarah. "You're always so calm. Don't you ever just want to jump up and down or something?"

"Uh, not particularly" Anne looked at her slightly quizzically. 

"Of course she's excited about the end of exams, she just doesn't feel the need to tell the whole world about it like you lot" said Mai matter-of-factly. 

Ellie propped herself up on an arm. "So, what do you think the Slytherins were all on about this morning?"

"The Slytherins? What do you mean?" asked Gabby, frowning. "They were just being their usual up-themselves selves."

"Nah, they were worried about something. It looked like some of them got letters with bad news, or somethingMalfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, that Nott boy, what's her face, Avery -" 

"Heythose are all Death Eaters' kids!" Gabby rolled over onto her front, looking distinctly more interested. "You think something's happened?"

"Anyone want to go check for Harry Potter in the Hospital Wing?" suggested Mai. 

"Why him?"

"Because it's always him" pointed out Ellie. "Basilisks, You-Know-Who, werewolvesif it happens, Harry Potter did it, or Harry Potter saw it happen." 

"Oy, you lot!" 

A shout hailed them from not so far away. Anne looked up to see Dave Hewitt and Chris Cullen, two other Hufflepuff fourth-years, jogging towards them. 

"What is it?" said Sarah coolly. She was still out with them because of the whole Jeremy Smith break-up. Anne was getting a little sick of that. Gabby was frantically patting her hair into place; she had been angling for Chris for the last three months. 

"Did you hear?" exclaimed Dave excitedly.

"No, what?"

"Helen Thompson, in Ravenclaw, you know, she's in our Transfiguration class-"

"She's been in our class all year, Dave, we know who she is" said Sarah in short tones. 

"Well, she tripped on the stairs, or slipped, or something, and ended up in the Hospital Wing, and guess who she saw in there!"

"Harry Potter," chimed Mai and Anne. 

"No! Well, he was there, but he wasn't injured or anything. But Hermione Granger was, and Ron and Ginny Weasley, and Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood, too! And she said that they all looked really bad, except for Ginny and Luna! What d'ya reckon's happened?"

"He Who Must Not Be Named," said Anne quietly. "Or Death Eaters." _What's wrong? Theo's father - it _must _have been something involving him - at least Potter and the others are okay, but what about Theo?   
Oh, this is stupid, Death Eaters deserve what they get. Why am I worrying over someone who probably-  
It's not about someone, it's about Theo. It's about how this affects him. _

"Then it's started" observed Ellie. 

"What do you mean, it's started?" Chris was not the brightest of people. 

"The next war, of course." She shrugged. "You do Divination. Remember what Firenze was saying, about two great wars, and we were in the middle? Well, maybe we've started the next one." 

"It can't be that badcan it?" Gabby looked very worried, now. She overreacted so much, thought Anne, to everythingalthough this might not be an overreaction. 

"You'll be fine, if it is, you're pureblood" said Sarah, with a touch of grimness. "You and Mai and Dave. The rest of us" 

"They killed purebloods, too. My cousin died. Dorcas Meadowes, her name was," said Dave. "They killed anyone who was against them." 

"What can we do about it, though? Why bother worrying about what we can't change?" asked Ellie.

"We're just kids"

"So's everyone in the Hospital Wing. And you can bet that, you know those Slytherins, if something has happened to their parents – their probably Death Eater parents - you can bet the Dream Team was in on it." Anne privately thought that Ellie was right, but being fatalistic couldn't exactly help them. Harry Potter and his friends might be doing pretty amazing things, but they were known as the Dream Team for a reason. Several of them. 

"But they're Gryffindors," objected Chris. "Brave, right?"

"Luna's a Ravenclaw," put in Gabby. 

"She's just weird. They're good at that sort of thing. We're Hufflepuffs, we're loyal and patientwhat does that do?"

"Loyalty counts," argued Anne. "If you don't have anything to be loyal to, what do you have?"

She thought of Theo, on a course to protect no-one but himself. He needed a loyalty, too; just not wanting to be something wasn't good enough. It was so negative. There wasn't much she could do about him, though; Theo knew where he was going, and she was an exception to the rule. All she could do about that wasnothing. Hope. 

"And besides, after they've gone out and fought, who's going to pick up the pieces?" said Mai reasonably.

"That's what we do." 

"It might all just be a coincidence" said Sarah. 

The others looked at her. She went red. "Okay, maybe not." 

"But what are we worrying about? We're young, we're free" said Gabby, laughing a little. 

"We have no exams" added Ellie. 

"And we have some gossiping to do, so would you two mind leaving us to it?" said Sarah pointedly. She frowned as she glanced at Anne. "Are you all right? You look a bit out of it." 

"Oh, fine. I'm fine. Just thinking aboutyou know, what might happen." 

Sarah patted her reassuringly on the arm. "It's probably not going to come to anything, don't worry about it. You'll be safe." 

Anne nodded, barely listening.   
_Safe. Hah. I've heard about that from the horse's mouth, Sarah, and Muggleborn and safe is the last thing I'll be. _

The boys departed without much complaint, and four Hufflepuff girls settled down to the serious business of deciding how to make Chris notice Gabby in the short time they had left. Anne hovered quietly on the outside, speaking only occasionally. She had other business to worry about. 

__

Like what to say to Theo, when it's going to sound false coming from me. Why should I care? I don't.

Except about Theothat is, what might have happened - I don't even know_ what's happened, but I'm sure that it's something - _

It was so much easier when it was just us and them. Now the lines are all blurry. I know they're bad, but why are they like that? What's Theo, for that matter? One of us or them?   
Why do they have to try and kill people anyway? 

Wow, am I feeling depressed today or what?   



	6. Farewells

****

A/N:Yes, this is the last chapter. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed - I really enjoy writing about Theo and Anne, and it's heartening to know that you enjoy reading about them. At the moment, I'm not really sure what to do with them in sixth year; this story was canon commentary as much as anything, and without canon it's hard to comment. However, there will be a sequel, Discussions, set over the summer, and told in their lettersas well as some other people's. After that, it depends. Discussions may take a little while to post as I have major exams looming on the near horizon. In twenty-three days, however, I will be free, and I promise if I haven't posted by then I definitely will. 

****

Chapter Six - Farewells

That Saturday Theo got to the small practice room first. He pulled out the stool, sat, and spread his music. This was definitely a time for distraction, and if Anne didn't want to play, she could damn well leave. He didn't want to talk, or laugh, or discuss exams, oror anything. 

His father was in Azkaban. 

It wasn't the mere fact of public humiliation that hurt; Malfoy's pride was definitely smarting over this, his father who was so admired and respected by everyone - everyone who counted - jailed like a "common criminal". The morning Prophet had not had everything, or even anything, just a small article saying several Azkaban escapees had been recaptured, and sent back to the prison. Along with several others caught with them - including, shockingly, Ministry employees. _Named_ Ministry employees. 

While Theo didn't precisely appreciate the stares, mutters, and satisfied laughter, he'd dealt with the idea of everyone knowing back in March, when public opinion swung towards Potter and his story being true. Malfoy hadn't. He wanted it all; the public respect and the private power. He was, Theo considered, not all that bright when it came to some things. It was the thought of his father in prison, in Azkaban, locked up with the Dementors for Merlin knew how long, where neither Theo nor his mother could see him. He missed his family, over the school year; he'd been looking forward to going home and seeing his parents, to getting his OWL results and seeing what they thought, to telling them all about his school year in more detail than letters could manage. Well, not everything, but what they didn't need to know couldn't hurt them. And the pleasure of being home, and sleeping in his own bed

and hearing his father come home late at night, and talk to his mother about what the Dark Lord had ordered, or seeing secret gatherings and pretending not to see or hear because they would Obliviate him if they thought he had, and knowing what was coming

but for all that - which had only begun last summer - he missed home. He missed his parents. 

Now one of them was gone, and he would go home to a house where his mother was silent and angry, where the house-elf was frightened to tears by her temper, where there was a gap where his father was. And his father, his father would be locked in Azkaban, all his happiness being sucked out by the Dementors, with people who would blame him for waltzing to freedom when they had been jailed for their crimes. While Potter waltzed away, Dumbledore's golden boy, because of course _he_ could do no wrong. Not now Umbridge was mysteriously incapitated. (Or not so mysteriously, if one listened to Malfoy.) He was alive, safe, after having helped send Theo's father to Azkaban. Everyone knew he must have been there, with his friends so badly injured. And Theo could do nothing about it despite the need to lash out at someone, _anyone-_

But he would not go down that path, of petty revenge and spite. It wasn't worth the time or effort. In Potter's place, what would he have done? The same thing. Potter couldn't help any of it. He was a pawn in a game that Theo hadn't entered and didn't want tobut might not have any choice about. But that need for revenge lingered. His father was in Azkaban. His father. Theo thought that he was, really, quite sensible about his parents. He knew what they had done, what they would do, in the Dark Lord's service. He knew it wasnot anything he could condone in himself. But condemning them was something he could not yet do, either. They were his parents. He loved them. 

The music drew to a crescendo and Theo stopped thinking, deliberately drowning himself in it because it had always worked before-  
The door creaked. Theo ignored it, focusing on the music, but his concentration was ruined. He knew precisely who would be standing behind him, and she brought up all the thoughts of the last two days. 

"Oh, don't stop on my account," Anne said, in a touch of irony he was sure she hadn't intended. Hadn't he said the same thing to her, four months and more ago? "I don't get the chance to hear you play by yourself very often." 

"Doesn't matter. I can never stay distracted when you're in here, anyway." Theo turned around. Anne looked troubled; she had put her bag on the table, but stood there with the strap over her shoulder, looking at him. She blinked. 

"Er-what?"

Theo realised the statement had not exactly made all that much sense. 

"I meant - oh, never mind. It's complicated." 

"Right." They both just looked at each other for a minute. 

"I'm sorry about your father," said Anne eventually. "I mean, that is, I know youyou'll miss him, and I" she trailed off into silence. 

"No you're not" said Theo harshly. If Anne was going to remind him about this whole bloody mess, she could damn well pay for it. She was _there_, and he needed to let offsome sort of emotion, or he couldn't take it any longer. Even if Anne was the last person who deserved it. "He's a Death Eater. He's in jail because he helped break into the Ministry of Magic. For the Dark Lord. You're not sorry about that. Him in Azkaban is one less Death Eater to try and kill you for being Muggleborn. So don't go lying, because there's no damn-"

Anne was looking at her toes, now, and going faintly red. "I knew this wasn't going to work" she said in a very small voice. 

"Trying to lie to make me feel better?" Theo knew he was being unreasonable, but who cared. She certainly didn't. 

"No." She shook her head, but she didn't look up. "Trying to explain - dammit." She did look up, then. "I mean yes, I am sorry, but not for your father. I don't know him. But-"

"But what?"

Theo was beginning to feel more than a little out of his depth. He wished Anne would shut up, leave, or get her flute out. Continued attempts at some sort of sympathy were not only perplexing, but irritating in that he felt she was genuine. She wasn't _supposed_ to feel genuinely sorry for him, and if she did, he didn't want her to, because he didn't need her to. He didn't. 

All in all, maybe it would be a good idea if she left. 

Anne chewed her lip for a minute, abandoned her post near the door, and hauled up the room's sole chair next to the piano stool. Then she sat, or rather, perched on the edge, as if she expected to be sent on her way very soon. The idea was tempting. 

"What I'm _trying_ to say, is, I don't really care about what happens to your father," she began "but I do feel bad because I know you feel bad about it, and if it was my father, I'd feel awful. Because we had that talk about parents, and how you care about your parents just as much as I care about mine. So I feel sorry for you." She paused. "That came out wrong." 

"I don't-"

Anne regarded him with a slight look of amusement. "If you say you don't need my pity, then I warn you, I'm going to keel over in giggles."

Theo shut his mouth and glared. Why did she have to bring humour into this?

On second thought, though, she had managed to stop him sounding like a total idiot. 

"Fine," he ground out. "But I don't." 

"Fair enough. I did say it came out wrong." She was going steadily redder. "What I mean, is, you have my sympathy. Or - that doesn't sound good, either. I mean I don't care about your father, but I do care about you, and-"

With a groan, she buried her face in her hands. Theo could have sworn he heard her mutter "Oh God, let me die now." 

He felt, in some odd way, that it was now his obligation to make a move. "Um. Thanks. For that. Because, I, uh, don't think I'll be hearing that from many people any time soon." 

Anne looked up through her fingers. "Which part of it?"

He couldn't help smiling a bit. "All of it, probably."

"Even from the other people whose parents got arrested?" 

He snickered. "Tell me, Anne, can you really see Draco Malfoy telling me that I have his sympathy? Or that he cares about me?"

Anne made a face. "Yuck. Don't." 

"Besides," he added "he probably won't be in there for all that long anyway."

"How do you figure that?" She tilted her head in inquiry. 

"There've been two breakouts from Azkaban, now, a third can't be that hard to arrange.. Now the Ministry knows the Dark Lord has returned, the fortress will probably be abandoned in a month or so-"

"The Dementors are working for You Know Who." Anne said it flatly. Theo remembered for her, these weren't abstract concepts, mattering only in terms of what she decided to do; this was about an army massing, and her a target

"Yes. So I - Dad won't be in there for very long." 

Theo was saying it to reassure himself it would be all right, he still had some nasty choices, but his father would, at least, be back

"Wait a minute. Since when has the Ministry acknowledged the - You Know Who is really back? There wasn't anything in the paper, just some stuff about the Death Eaters that got captured, and your- well, you know-"

"Igot a letter from my mother. They're going to announce it on Sunday." 

Anne closed her eyes, for a minute, then opened them. She looked lost, now, younger than her fifteen years. 

"I'm scared." Theo was impressed. It took courage of a certain kind to be able to say that. 

"I know," he said quietly. She had every reason to be. He only had to stay neutral; for her, there was no choice but to fight, or hope that others could protect herothers wouldn't understand that, but he knew what it would be like. Terror. 

"If II wouldn't let them kill you" he said abruptly. As if he had any power to do that, when he'd admitted all he was out for was keeping his own neck safe, but he didn't like the way she looked, not calm like normal, but terrified of the future-

"Thanks." She smiled at him, trying to look brave, and failing miserably. "I hate this. It's all sostupid. Knowing there are people out there who'll want to kill me for nothing I've doneI mean, I know why, you've explained it, but stillit was maybe not going to happen, then." 

Theo shuffled a bit closer to her. He tried to see what he once had; just a Muggleborn; and found he couldn't. Oh, he still knew they weren't the samebut Anne was right, she had turned into his exception. What he was seeing was a pretty girl who he knew very well by now, who was really quite close to him, and he wasn't probably going to see her again for three months and-

__

Help. She's Muggleborn_, remember?_

He compromised his unease and his sudden compassion by ruffling her hair, earning a dirty look, and suggesting that they get on and play some music, since it was the last Saturday of the term. Anne readily agreed, apparently eager to get on to something that would distract her. 

__

Makes two of us. 

He watched as she got out her flute and her music from her bag. 

"Hey, I forgot!" She held up two bottles of Butterbeer. "I brought these after all. We can have them later." 

"What piece do you want to play?"

"How about that flute sonata? You know, the one you barged in here and gave to me"

"If I can find it." He had to go through his folder; they seemed to have collected quite a repertoire over six months. "Here we go." 

Anne was just spreading the music out on her stand. "Ready?"

Theo put his hands to the keys, and looked at her sideways. She raised her flute to her mouth. "Your intro."

"Oh, right. One, two, three, four-"

No matter what happened, he reflected as he played, they would always have this. Music was something that you couldn't stop sharing, after all. This had begun, for him, as a distraction from thoughts of what was going to come; turned into a friendship that made him think about the coming war; and seemed to be evolving intosomething that allowed them both to be distracted by music. Which was all. Really. 

__

If music be the food of love, play onOkay, where did that thought come from? Yuck. Sentimentality. I have_ been corrupted. _

Eventually they did break out the Butterbeer, and recounted the various horrors of exam week. Theo told Anne all about the scene from the Astronomy Tower; Anne recounted the boredom of the fourth-year Defence test ("at least you got to do a practical bit, I was annoyed.") At about four, they conceded defeat by the clock, and began to pack things up. The last thing either needed was an interrogation about where they'd been, after two successful terms of hiding things. 

"Just think, we won't see each other for three months," said Anne. 

"Lots can happen in three months," said Theo darkly. "I hope my parents let me come back." 

"I hope mine do. I've beenwell, I haven't exactly explained to them about everything that's been happening. I still might not." 

"I wouldn't," said Theo, shrugging. "What they don't know can't hurt them. And you're right, they might keep you away." 

"You'll not be telling your parents a few things, either," observed Anne. "Me, for one."

"Would you tell your parents-"

"That I know you? Yeah. They don't understand about the Houses, or anything. But not quite everything. Your father - well, explaining what Death Eaters are will be bad enough. "Hey, Mum, Dad, there are these people who will probably want to kill me for existing, and maybe you, too.""

"You- they'll go for important targets, first. People who've married Muggleborns, or Muggles, who're traitors to their bloodlines. Or Muggleborns themselves. Your family would just be- well, collateral da-" 

He cut off. He didn't want to finish that sentence. 

"Don't."

"If I hear anything - that might affect you - I'll let you know," Theo promised. His insides twisted as he said it. He was committing himself to something that could potentially get him - but it wasn't as if his mail was monitored, andthere were limits to neutrality, unfortunately. Letting Anne die because he'd known something and failed to warn her crossed every one of them.

"I forgot about owl post, we can still write," suggested Anne. "Unless you think that wouldn't be safe-"

"Nah, I have my own owl, my parents wouldn't notice. As long as yours doesn't turn up at the breakfast table. They have other things to keep them busy, anyway." 

Anne gave a slight shrug. "I'll send her at night, then. God knows all the attention any owl at my place is going to get is an over-enthusiastic welcome from my sisters."

They stood, looking at each other, bags on shoulders. 

"Bye, then," said Anne eventually. She reached forward to give Theo a hug. He returned it, remembering a conversation about families and some half-disturbing, half-intruiging thoughts. The reminiscence was broken by the startling feeling of Anne kissing him on the cheek before letting go. 

"Er, um, see you after the holidays" she mumbled, suddenly fascinated by the floor. Theo, not really sure what he was doing, leaned down to give her a quick peck back. He was caught between uncertainty and the nebulous feeling that he should be doing something else. He just didn't have the time - or, yes, the courage - to try to work that one out right now. 

"You, uh, you too." 

They stepped away from each other rather hurriedly, Theo for one not knowing quite where to look. This was seeming like a very good moment to leave. 

"See you on the first Saturday back?"

"Of course. You better practice over the holidays!" 

"You, too." Anne smiled at him, still a little red but slightly less awkward, then was gone in a rush. Theo thought she might be slightly discomfited. Well, Merlin knew he was. After all, what had possessed her to do that? Or him, for that matter? Still 

__

you're making a rather ridiculous fuss over a kiss on the cheek. Stop it. 

He just wished he was going to see her before next September. The holidays were, now he thought about it, so _long_.

*

Anne stood in her dorm, looking around. Her trunks had gone; she had just nipped up to make sure everything had been packed. It had been, after all, an eventful year - compared to her first four. She looked at the space on the dresser where her owl Bronwyn had perched sometimes. At least she'd be getting news, over the summer. She intended to get the Daily Prophet, as well; and the other girls would send her letters. She wouldn't be uninformed. She would just be cut off from the magic world. And Theo. That was a definite downside; she was still trying to decide what she thought about him. He was a friend, of course, but - she wasn't sure why she had kissed him on the cheek. It wasn't like she had known him all that long, but he hadn't seemed to mind, and she did quite like getting away with hugging him. And he _did_ ruffle her hair sometimes, and it was really annoying, so – she did like Theo, not like that, but – well, maybe like that, he was the only boy she really felt comfortable around, but - anyway, she could use some time to think a bit aboutthat. As for news, there were always the Martins, but Elise was still young, it was hard to talk to adultsand it wasn't the same as being able to _do_ magic. At least they'd understand about the war. 

Magic or her family. She wished it didn't work like that, but

__

Only 'till I'm seventeen. _Then I can do magic at home. _

Sarah poked her head around the door. "What are you waiting for, Anne, we're all down by the Entrance Hall! Hurry up or the carriages will go!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," said Anne as she left the dorm with Sarah. "Sad to be going home?"

"Nah, it'll be good to see home again. And with everything that's happened, I want to see my parents, y'know?" 

The _Sunday Prophet _had had all he details of the fight at the Ministry - well, Anne suspected it had been edited quite a bit, but most of what counted was there. The paper had swung - as the entire Wizarding world seemed to -from ridicule to panic. The Hufflepuffs were trying to stay calm, but

"Me too," said Anne. "It's going to be hard explaining this all to them, though"

"You'll be fine," said Sarah, slinging an arm around her shoulders for a quick hug. "No-one's going to be after you. I wouldn't be in someone like Hermione Granger's shoes for anything, now." 

"No-one was after Cedric Diggory, either."

"That was an accident. Wrong place, wrong time. That won't happen to any of us." Sarah was breezily confident, something Anne wished she could emulate. 

"Maybe not." She smiled at Sarah. "Or maybe. But I guess you're right. No point worrying."

"That's right. C'mon!" Sarah hurried her on to one of the horseless carriages, where Gabby, Mai and Ellie were waiting. As she climbed in, Anne turned her head for a last look at Hogwarts. She would see it soon enoughand Theoand she still had music. And letters. 

__

Plenty of distractions. _Some more than others Lord knows what's going to happen the next time I see Theoeven if it won't be for ages, dammit  
Mind back on track here!   
Sarah's probably right. Worry about tomorrow when it happens.   
And enjoy the distractions while I can._


End file.
